The International Energy Agency published its Global Methane Tracker 2025 on 7 May. The annual update gives the agency's estimates of methane emissions from oil, gas and coal, based on satellite data, measurement campaigns and reported figures, and assesses the cost of reducing them. Its central finding is that methane emissions from the energy sector remain above 120 million tonnes a year, sustained by record production of oil, gas and coal and by limited mitigation so far.
The fossil fuel sector accounts for nearly a third of global methane emissions from human activity, according to the IEA. Agriculture and waste account for most of the rest. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas with a shorter atmospheric lifetime than carbon dioxide, which means cuts have a relatively fast effect on warming.
Estimates versus reported figures
The IEA says its estimate is considerably higher than the levels implied by official reporting. The gap reflects the difficulty of measuring methane from millions of wells, pipelines, compressors and mines, and the reliance in many national inventories on generic emission factors rather than direct measurement.
Data transparency is improving. The IEA counts more than 25 satellites in orbit that can provide insights into methane emissions. Very large leaks from oil and gas facilities detected by satellites rose to a record high in 2024, according to the tracker. Some of that increase may reflect better detection, but it also points to large, avoidable releases from specific facilities.
A new category: abandoned sites
This year's tracker includes, for the first time, estimates of emissions from abandoned fossil fuel facilities. The IEA found that abandoned oil and gas wells and abandoned coal mines together contributed around 8 million tonnes of methane in 2024. Taken together, those sources would rank as the world's fourth-largest emitter of fossil fuel methane if they were a country.
Abandoned wells are a particular issue in long-producing regions such as the United States and Canada, where millions of wells have been drilled over more than a century, and where responsibility for plugging older wells can be unclear when operators have gone out of business. Abandoned coal mines can continue to release methane for years after closure.
Abatement potential and cost
The IEA estimates that around 70% of annual methane emissions from the energy sector could be avoided with existing technologies. A significant share of abatement measures could pay for themselves within a year, because the gas that is captured instead of leaked or vented can be sold.
Typical measures include leak detection and repair programmes, replacing gas-driven pneumatic devices with electric or compressed-air versions, installing vapour recovery units on storage tanks, and ending routine venting and flaring. In coal mining, ventilation air methane can be oxidised and drained methane captured for use.
The tracker finds a very wide range in methane intensity across countries and companies, with the best performers outperforming the worst by a factor of 100. The IEA argues that spreading readily available best practices could narrow that gap considerably.
The energy security angle
The IEA frames methane abatement as an energy security issue as well as a climate one. It estimates that methane abatement could have made around 100 billion cubic metres of natural gas available to markets in 2024, which it describes as on par with Norway's total gas exports. A further 150 billion cubic metres of gas is flared globally each year, most of it as part of routine practices that the IEA says can be avoided.
For importing regions such as Europe and parts of Asia, which have relied on LNG to replace Russian pipeline gas, additional supply from reduced leakage and flaring in producing countries could ease market tightness. Whether that gas reaches markets depends on infrastructure: captured gas needs pipelines or processing facilities to be sold, which is a constraint in remote producing areas.
Pledges and performance
Current methane pledges by companies and countries cover about 80% of global oil and gas production, according to the IEA. Those pledges include the Global Methane Pledge, launched in 2021, under which signatories aim to cut methane emissions across all sectors by 30% from 2020 levels by 2030, and the Oil and Gas Decarbonization Charter announced at COP28, under which companies committed to near-zero methane emissions by 2030.
Performance lags behind. Only around 5% of global oil and gas output demonstrably meets a near-zero methane emissions standard, the IEA says. Its executive director, Fatih Birol, said the latest data indicate that implementation has continued to fall short of ambitions.
Policy developments
Methane policy is diverging between major markets. The European Union adopted a methane regulation in 2024 that imposes monitoring, reporting and leak repair requirements on EU operators and will extend equivalent requirements to imported oil, gas and coal later in the decade. In the United States, Congress used the Congressional Review Act in March to strike down the EPA rule implementing the methane waste emissions charge, and the administration has said it will reconsider federal methane standards for the oil and gas sector.
Other producers, including Canada, Norway, Nigeria and several Gulf states, have adopted or announced methane rules or targets of varying stringency. China released a methane action plan in 2023, focused largely on coal mine methane.
The temperature effect
The IEA estimates that, based on today's policies, deploying targeted methane mitigation in the fossil fuel sector would prevent a rise of roughly 0.1°C in global temperatures by 2050. It compares that to eliminating all carbon dioxide emissions from heavy industry worldwide.
What it means for energy markets
For gas markets, methane intensity is becoming a commercial factor. European buyers will need to demonstrate that imports meet monitoring and reporting standards equivalent to EU rules, and some Asian buyers are asking for methane data on LNG cargoes. Producers with credible measurement and low intensity may find it easier to sign long-term contracts.
For producers, the economics of abatement are generally favourable where gas can be sold. The main obstacles are infrastructure, regulatory enforcement and data. The record number of large leaks detected by satellites suggests that enforcement and operational discipline, rather than technology, are the binding constraints in many cases.
What to watch
Key developments over the next year include the European Commission's implementing rules for the methane import requirements, any changes to US federal methane standards, and progress on satellite-based monitoring, including how data from new instruments are integrated into national inventories and company reporting.