Gas Flaring Goals in Danger But Hope Remains

Efforts to cut global gas flaring took a step in the wrong direction in 2023 as flared volumes surged 7%, eclipsing a 1% rise in oil production, according to the latest figures from the World Bank’s Global Gas Flaring Tracker. The setback comes despite recent oil industry pledges to cut methane emissions and decarbonize due to climate pressures. Globally, gas flaring is at its highest level in five years. Nine countries account for 75% of flared volumes and four of them — Russia, Iran, the US and Libya — posted an increase in flaring in 2023. The increase is all the more troubling as it comes just six years ahead of the World Bank’s 2030 goal to end routine flaring. Zubin Bamji, who leads the World Bank’s efforts to reduce flaring and methane emissions, lamented not only the climate impacts of the increase but also the lost opportunity to increase access to energy in producing countries. “This business-as-usual practice of pursuing oil production with little consideration for the potential use of associated gas is not just polluting, it is immensely wasteful,” Bamji wrote in the report’s introduction. The 2021 Global Methane Pledge, signed by over a hundred countries responsible for 45% of global human-caused methane emissions, aimed to slash methane emissions by 30% by 2030. And under the Oil & Gas Decarbonization Charter (OGDC) unveiled at last year’s COP28, over 50 major oil and gas firms — including 30 national oil companies (NOCs) — vowed to bring methane emissions close to zero by 2030, along with committing to net-zero oil and gas operations by 2050 and ending routine flaring.