Cheapest path for big methane cuts goes through Australia’s mines

Bloomberg News | October 18, 2022 | 

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Cutting methane leaks from coal mines is the cheapest way for Australia to significantly reduce emissions of the potent greenhouse gas, according to a new analysis from energy think tank Ember.


The nation’s coal mines spew more than 1 million metric tons of methane each year, contributing nearly a quarter of the country’s emissions of the gas, the group said in an analysis released Wednesday. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s government is considering joining the more than 120 nations that have signed the Global Methane Pledge, in which participants take voluntary actions to collectively reduce emissions of the gas at least 30% from 2020 levels by 2030.

Former Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s Liberal coalition government declined to join the effort, making it one of the few big economies to sit out, along with China, Russia and India. But Albanese’s Labor party took over this summer after a campaign that promised action on climate change, and Agriculture Minister Murray Watt has said the government is actively considering joining the pledge.

Where might Australia find such deep cuts? Compared with trying to reduce methane emissions in the agriculture industry, coal is an easier, cheaper target. Existing, effective technologies and approaches to cut methane emissions in mines cost about A$270 ($168) per ton of methane, compared to agriculture, where costs are roughly four times higher, the report said, citing data from the Climate and Clean Air Coalition and the United Nations Environment Programme.

To achieve the cuts described in the report, which would reduce the nation’s annual emissions of the gas 18% by 2030, Australia would need to phase out thermal coal, mitigate methane from existing mines and stop any new mines or expansions. The quickest reductions would come from first closing the country’s gassiest mines.

“Coal mines could do the heavy lifting to achieve Methane Pledge targets quickly, giving time for harder-to-tackle sources, such as agriculture,” lead author Dr. Sabina Assan wrote in the report.

Agriculture and livestock are the biggest source of methane from human activity, followed by fossil fuels, including coal, and waste. If released directly into the atmosphere, methane traps more than 80 times the heat of carbon dioxide during its first 20 years.

During a discussion with the Australian Farm Institute on Tuesday broadcast online, Watt said there aren’t plans to levy a methane tax on farmers as has been done in New Zealand, the world’s largest dairy exporter. Any legislation, he said, would use a “whole of economy target” approach.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said this month that farmers will start to pay a levy on agricultural emissions including methane, carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide, by 2025. The proposals will allow the South Pacific nation to meet its legislated target of reducing methane emissions to 10% below 2017 levels by 2030, Ardern said. Farming accounts for around half of that country’s total greenhouse gas emissions.

(By Aaron Clark, with assistance from Ben Westcott and Sybilla Gross)