Best Practices for Reduction of Methane and Black Carbon from Arctic Oil and Gas Production

Methane and black carbon are important short-term climate pollutants. Changing technology and climate change itself have increased the amount of oil and gas production activities in the Arctic region and this trend is expected to accelerate, with the potential for yet more methane and black carbon emissions from this activity. The Arctic holds one-fifth of the world’s undiscovered, recoverable oil and natural gas and yet it is particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts. If oil and gas is to be developed in the Arctic we must ensure that both methane and black carbon emissions are held to a bare minimum, something that is readily achievable with current technologies.