New images of EU’s methane leaks expose deadly reality of gas industry

24th June 2021, London - The launch of a new #CutMethaneEU campaign that is publishing images and videos of methane leaks from gas plants across the EU is a damning indictment of the fossil gas industry, according to Global Witness. 

The Clean Air Task Force is traveling around Europe, using an optical gas imaging (OGI) camera, visually capturing methane leaks from oil and gas facilities. The campaign has so far captured 271 incidents at 123 oil and gas sites across Europe, including Austria, Germany, Italy and Poland. 

Murray Worthy, Gas Campaign Leader, at Global Witness said:

“What this vital work from the Clean Air Task Force shows is that methane leaks are not simply anomalies from an otherwise well-run industry. They are an inevitable feature of an industry that is based on digging up and transporting climate-wrecking gases around the world.”

“The oil and gas industry spends millions trying to convince politicians and populations that they are both necessary and responsible. What should now be blindingly obvious is that is anything but true. This is an industry that cannot be trusted.”

“We know just how devastating methane emissions are, as do the gas industry. The single most effective way of stopping these methane leaks is also incredibly simple - phase out the use of climate-wrecking fossil gas.”

Methane is a greenhouse gas that is, in the short term, 86 times more potent than carbon dioxide and has also driven more than a quarter of global warming to date. The European Union is the world’s largest importer of fossil gas and, despite its own climate commitments, is therefore central to this catastrophic problem. 

Global Witness is calling on the EU to rule out any support for new fossil gas projects. This follows the recent call from the International Energy Agency that said the world cannot afford any new investment in fossil fuel extraction to reach net-zero by 2050. 

The #CutMethaneEU campaign will be publishing more images, from multiple locations across Europe in the coming months. Visit https://cutmethane.eu/ to learn more about the campaign.