European Commission Unveils Multi-Nation Greenhouse Gas Alliance
The European Commission and the East Mediterranean Gas Forum have formed a multi-national working group to develop a consensus-based approach for the measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across the international supply chain from pre-production through final delivery to enable the provision of comparable and reliable information.
Several well-established domestic and international emissions reporting approaches already exist. The 12-nation MMRV working group hopes to build on these existing approaches. This includes, but is not limited to, the United Nations Environmental Program’s Oil and Gas Methane Partnership 2.0, the flagship oil and gas reporting and mitigation program of the United Nations Environment Program – the only comprehensive, measurement-based international reporting framework for the sector.
The MMRV working group will provide a consistent set of technical criteria for reporting emissions and operating data at various levels of data availability. The working group believes that this approach will encourage and prefer measured data over modeled data and estimation of emissions, while balancing economic and technical feasibility. The MMRV framework will also be technology neutral with respect to approaches for measurement of emissions. These actions will improve the accuracy and representativeness of the reported data, the working group said. Comparability will be further supported by using transparent and consistent tools for estimating GHG supply chain emissions and data quality from pre-production through final delivery of the natural gas.
To provide comparable and reliable information, the MMRV working group will support independent third-party verification of the accuracy and representativeness of the emissions data and the aggregate supply chain GHG emissions intensity. It will also support accreditation to ensure that certifiers are independent of the reporting entity and are technically qualified to conduct reviews.
The MMRV working group’s deliberations and recommendations are informed by a diverse group of global and local industry, environmental, and technical stakeholders with expertise and technical knowledge related to MMRV and the oil and natural gas industry. With input from these stakeholders, the MMRV working group will work collaboratively through 2024 to develop guidance, protocols, and tools for voluntary use in natural gas markets.
Nations participating in the MMRV working group are Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Norway, Republic of Korea, United Kingdom, and the United States.
