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Methane Emissions

Answer

UK methane emissions have fallen every year since 1990 and by 2004 had dropped to about half of 1990 levels. The main sources of methane emissions in the UK are landfill sites, agriculture, coal mining, gas distribution, and oil and gas production.Landfill site operators that continue to accept waste must fulfil the requirements of the Landfill Directive including taking appropriate measures to collect, treat and use landfill gas to produce useful energy or, where that is not possible, flare it. Other government measures to reduce the levels of biodegradable waste being sent to landfill include the landfill tax escalator, the Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme (designed to meet the Landfill Directive targets), and public awareness campaigns. Together these measures have resulted in a decrease of about 63 per cent. in landfill methane emissions between 1990 and 2004.The nature of emissions from agriculture make them a more difficult to target for reduction than in other sectors. Nonetheless, improvement in animal diet and productivity has produced an 11 per cent. decrease in methane emissions from animals since 1990, and further reductions are expected. Recent research from the Rowett Research Institute, based in Aberdeen into anti-methane feed ingredients has yielded promising results, and in initial trials a reduction of up to 70 per cent. in emitted methane has been achieved. The UK Government remain committed to research into reducing methane emissions from ruminants. We are also committed to exploring techniques for methane recovery from agricultural waste and its use as a clean energy source.With regard to methane from coal mining, UK Coal signed up to the UK Emissions Trading scheme in 2002, with the target of reducing methane emissions from their installations by 400,000 tonnes by 2006. Furthermore methane extracted from abandoned coal mines and used as fuel has been exempt from the climate change levy since 2003. This exemption encourages the owners of mining facilities and decommissioned mines to invest in systems that capture methane that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere. In addition the Coal Authority and the Department of Trade and Industry are developing a scheme further to encourage the mitigation of methane from abandoned mines. Methane emissions from coal mining (including closed mines) fell by some 73 per cent. between 1990 and 2004.Fugitive emissions from natural gas dropped by about 39 per cent. between 1990 and 2004. National Grid Gas plc, which owns and maintains the UK gas distribution network, is continuing to make improvements to the UK gas network. The planned replacement of 91,000 km iron gas mains with polyethylene pipes will lead to a further reduction in methane emissions from gas transmission.Methane emissions from offshore production of oil and gas fell by 53 per cent. between 1990 and 2004 in line with trends in numbers of installations and production levels.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

43702; 441 c2114-5W

Session

2005-06

Subjects

Air pollution Standards Methane

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk