The European Council has adopted a regulation on the Net-Zero Industry Act (NZIA) as well as new requirements on measuring, reporting and verifying methane emissions in the energy sector.
The NZIA is one of the three key legislative initiatives of the green deal industrial plan to enhance the competitiveness of Europe's net-zero industry and support a rapid transition to climate neutrality. It aims to boost the industrial deployment of net-zero technologies that are needed to achieve the EU's climate goals. Progress will be measured through the EU’s manufacturing capacity of net-zero technologies (such as solar photovoltaic panels, wind turbines, batteries and heat pumps) that should reach at least 40% of the EU’s deployment needs; in addition, the EU aims to reach a 15% share of the world’s production of these technologies by 2040. Moreover, the act sets up an annual injection capacity of at least 50 MtCO2 to be achieved by 2030 in geological storage sites located in the territory of the Union. The NZIA should enter to force between June and July 2024.
The Council has also introduced a regulation on tracking and reducing methane emissions as part of the ‘Fit for 55’ package. According to the new rules, operators will have to measure methane emissions at source level and draw up monitoring reports that will be checked by independent accredited verifiers, requiring that operators detect and repair methane leaks immediately after detection. Member states will be required to maintain and regularly update an inventory of all wells (including inactive wells) and to measure and monitor emissions from coal mines that have been closed or abandoned for less than 70 years. In addition, the regulation bans venting and flaring methane from drainage stations by 2025 and from ventilation shafts by 2027. The new rules also will introduce global monitoring tools to increase the transparency of methane emissions from imports of oil, gas and coal into the EU.
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