Cederic Cremers, Chair of Methane Guiding Principles, reflects on our key progress points in 2024:
2024 was a year of exciting developments at Methane Guiding Principles. From the expansion of a new initiative focused on country-industry collaboration, best-practice sharing targeted at midstream operations, technology sharing through webinars, and new and improved publications, our members demonstrated their commitment to managing and reducing methane emissions via collaboration and joint efforts. The significance and real-world impact of our work emerged at numerous points throughout 2024:
- The year started strong with our annual in-person roundtable in Doha, Qatar. Senior-level representatives from industry and civil society collectively met to discuss MGP’s annual work plan and how to measure real-world methane reductions. Thanks again to QatarEnergy for hosting us.
- MGP spearheaded a new phase of public-private partnership collaboration for methane reduction with the launch of Advancing Global Methane Reductions (AGMR), a groundbreaking initiative that connects industry with specific countries to share key learnings and best practices.
- Progress continued in other areas of MGP as well, including initiatives focused on midstream segments of the natural gas value chain and on technological innovations. Three technology-focused webinars saw hundreds of participants gain important lessons from top experts in the field.
- We welcomed Jemena, a major Australian energy producer, as a new member. Existing member Woodside Energy also hosted a methane masterclass alongside Australia Energy Producers in Perth, Australia, demonstrating Australia’s growing efforts toward controlling methane emissions.
- But it wasn’t just Australia: MGP activity accelerated across the greater Asia-Pacific region, reaching a crescendo at the AGMR Impact Conference in Baku, Azerbaijan. As part of Baku Climate Action Week—a prelude to COP29—the conference convened players across the natural gas value chain to explore novel ways to accelerate methane monitoring and management.
- As the industry is continuously learning, we updated our hugely popular Best Practice Guides. Seven of the most popular guides were updated with the input of over 40 members.
- Building off the successful launch of a new website in 2023, we ramped up our external communications to ensure more of the public and broader ecosystem are aware of the wide variety of methane reduction tools and strategies.
Overall, MGP has much to celebrate as we wrap up 2024. Looking ahead to 2025, I see a promising landscape for the industry to demonstrate more real methane reductions. I hope you all will join me in delivering that.
Cederic Cremers, Chair, MGP and EVP LNG, Shell
