Volatile methane emissions from gas infrastructure in the national greenhouse gas inventory: Analysis and outlook

Methane is a climate-damaging gas that escapes, among other things, in the extraction, processing, storage and transport of natural gas, petroleum and petroleum gas into the atmosphere. Diffuse methane emissions from the gas infrastructure are estimated in the Austrian Air Pollution Inventory (OLI) in accordance with international guidelines and reported annually to the EU and UNFCCC. In the context of this study, the approach to determine the methane emissions from IPCC category 1.B.2.b (natural gas) in OLI was discussed with Vertreter:innen industry and compared with the data of various international approaches (calculation methods of other countries) and projects (EDGAR, IIASA). This made it possible to assess the accuracy of the national methodology and identify potential for improvement.