Telegraph: UK fracking ambitions threatened by EU warning over methane emissions
“Methane is a much more powerful greenhouse gas than CO2,” said Jos Delbeke, director-general of the European Commission’s climate divisions.
“The level of methane emissions tilts the balance for or against the development of shale: it is the central issue. We don’t want to copy and paste what happened in the US. We will do things differently in Europe,” he told the Daily Telegraph.
Mr Delbeke said drilling firms will have to come up with plans to track methane emissions or face EU legislation forcing them to do so. “Either the companies put it on the table or a regulation is going to come at the European level,” he said.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says methane is 86 times more damaging than CO2 over a 20-year period, and risks triggering a dangerous “feedback loop” for global warming. MORE