Zitely Tzompa Sosa: Roadmap for the Development of an EU Methane Import Standard

As the world’s largest importer of oil and natural gas, the European Union is in a unique position to leverage its buying power, climate ambition, and technical expertise to drastically reduce upstream methane emissions in the energy sector, which account for 62% of global fossil fuel methane emissions. The EU imports 90% of the gas and 97% of the oil it consumes, which means that by implementing a rigorous import standard for these fossil fuels, the EU can take steps to both drive methane reduction amongst its trade partners and reduce the emissions it is responsible for creating outside its borders. If implemented correctly, an import standard will have a positive impact by slowing climate change, increasing global energy security, and mitigating serious health risks associated with oil and gas emissions in energy producing countries. 

This presentation will describe how the EU could develop two types of methane import standard, one based on a prescriptive approach and a second one based on an emission intensity target for gas imports. 

Bio

Zitely Tzompa Sosa works at Clean Air Task Force as the Technical Advocate for the Methane Pollution Prevention team. Zitely performs direct decision-making advocacy for European legislation aimed at reducing methane emissions from the oil and gas industry. Zitely studied her Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University and has 14 years of technical and scientific experience related to emissions from oil and gas sources.