Global Methane Alliance regional meeting: Peru

UN Environment Programme, in collaboration with the Government of Peru, gathered representatives of the governments of Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, and Peru, and major oil and gas companies in Latin America and the Caribbean to discuss concrete measures to quickly reduce methane emissions in the oil and as sector.

Participants discussed options to increase the ambition of the climate commitments registered in the Paris Agreement and how the Global Methane Alliance poses an urgent opportunity to commit to an ambitious methane reduction target. Recognizing the immense mitigation potential in the oil and gas industry, presenters discussed opportunities for coordinated action between public and private sector players to enable ambitious climate action.

Participants agreed that action in this sector is urgent, realistic and achievable. The oil and gas sector has technological and cost-effective mitigation opportunities that can lead to increases in profits, improvements in competitiveness, increased adaptive capacity of organizations and savings in operation, and even generate transformational changes oriented to the creation of value through innovation in new businesses. Presentations from the Mexican government on its experience developing and implementing methane regulations for the oil and gas sector demonstrated the feasibility for countries in Latin America, while other organizations like Environmental Defense Fund and Clean Air Task Force also shared their experience and expertise on methane regulations.

Following the meeting, a national workshop is planned for Colombia in February 2020.