Turkmenistan moves towards plugging massive methane leaks
GuardianJun 13, 2023
On Tuesday, Turkmenistan's Pres. Serdar Berdimuhamedov launched two initiatives, including one targeting oil and gas industries' colossal methane leaks, to reduce the country's greenhouse gas emissions.
The news comes as officials from Turkmenistan and the US are negotiating an agreement that could see the latter provide financial support and expertise to the central Asian nation to plug holes, which are allowing plant-warming gases to escape its aging fossil fuel infrastructure.
Helping Turkmenistan successfully mitigate its methane emissions would reflect a major achievement in tackling the climate crisis. The real work starts by cutting emissions, and demonstrating results through performing measurements, transparent reporting, and effective mitigation.
Plugging Turkmenistan's giant methane leaks is vital for reaching our climate goals. However, Turkmenistan is just one of many super-emitters that must be addressed. A long list of polluters including Russia, the US, Iran, Iraq, China, Libya, Algeria, Venezuela, and Canada also need to make a dent in their methane emissions for global warming to be tackled successfully.
There is an 8% chance US greenhouse gas emissions will be halved by 2030, according to the Metaculus prediction community.