National ambitions to lower emissions have grown significantly in recent years, with many new countries signing onto methane commitments. High-level methane pledges now cover around 80% of global fossil fuel production, up from around 50% in 2021. This includes the Global Methane Pledge (GMP), which today includes more than 150 countries and covers more than 50% of emissions from human activity worldwide. Launched in 2021 at the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), the GMP commits participating countries to collectively reduce anthropogenic methane emissions – from all sources, not just energy – by at least 30% below 2020 levels by 2030.

Most GMP signatories are yet to take concrete action to introduce policies or to reduce emissions. The detailed policies and regulations in place today would cut oil and gas emissions by only around 20% by 2030 and 26% by 2035, well short of the GMP’s economy-wide reduction target of a 30% cut by 2030. In the coal sector, ambition is even more limited, and the implementation gap is larger. Current policies and regulations would reduce coal-related methane emissions by 12% by 2030 and 22% by 2035.

Turning high-level commitments into results requires moving from promises to action. A reduction target is a first step, but it needs to be backed by specific policies, regulations, resources and implementation plans. Countries seeking to develop such frameworks can draw on existing support, including the International Energy Agency (IEA)’s regulatory roadmaps for cutting methane emissions in the oil and gas and coal sectors.

Several countries introduced or strengthened mandatory policies and regulations targeting methane emissions in 2025:

• Canada amended federal regulations on emissions from upstream oil and gas facilities. The revised rules tighten standards for leak detection and repair (LDAR), strengthen the management of fugitive emissions, and prohibit venting except in narrowly defined circumstances. The changes also introduce an alternative compliance pathway, allowing facilities that meet a prescribed methane intensity threshold to devise their own abatement strategies. Under Canada’s federal architecture, oil and gas producing provinces can receive an exemption from the federal regulations, provided the province enacts regulations that are as strict and ambitious as the federal ones. Through these enhanced regulations, Canada seeks to reduce oil and gas emissions by 72% by 2030 (compared to 2012 levels), though this will depend on the strength of provincial regulations.

• The European Union’s Methane Regulation began to take partial effect, introducing  requirements for LDAR, source-level emissions quantification, and a ban on venting from coal mine drainage systems. The bloc’s import standard also came into force in May 2025, requiring importers to provide information on product origin and routes, as well as on methane-control measures such as LDAR and monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV). EU energy ministers endorsed certification and “trace-and-claim” as workable solutions for demonstrating compliance with forthcoming import rules, and issued guidance to support both EU importers and non-EU producers.

• Ghana is developing guidelines setting out a comprehensive framework for managing methane emissions, including mandatory LDAR, repair obligations, limits on venting and flaring, and equipment standards.

• Kazakhstan is developing regulations to curb methane emissions from the fossil fuel sector, including by eliminating non-emergency venting, requiring LDAR, and establishing a measurement, monitoring, reporting and verification (MMRV) framework.

• Nigeria introduced a tax law offering fiscal incentives for the use of associated gas and tax deductions for reinjecting natural gas that would otherwise be flared.

• Senegal is developing methane abatement regulations in accordance with Decree 2025-227, which mandates an interministerial order to limit the pollutant content of atmospheric releases, set conditions for the discharge of combustion products, and specify requirements for emissions measurement and control devices.

• The United Kingdom released a methane action plan setting out measures developed as part of the Carbon Budget and Growth Delivery Plan. These include reducing emissions from flaring and venting and addressing methane leaks. The plan also outlines international efforts to cut global emissions, including diplomatic engagement and work to assess emissions linked to imported fossil fuels.

• In the United States, compliance deadlines for various regulatory requirements relating to methane emissions from the oil and gas sector have been extended until January 2027. Congress also delayed the entry into force of the “Waste Emissions Charge” mandated by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act until 2034.

Nearly 100 other countries have either completed or are developing national methane action plans. This includes 38 countries that are being supported by the CCAC’s Methane Roadmap Action Programme.

The IEA’s Policies Database catalogues more than 650 existing and announced policies and regulations related to methane emissions across 80 countries. Using this dataset, we assessed the regulatory performance of the largest emitters of energy-related methane, including on regulations addressing MRV, LDAR, flaring and venting rules, equipment and facility standards, and economic policies. The results show wide variations in regulatory maturity.

As of April 2026, 141 countries had submitted updates to their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement for the period to 2035. Methane is included in the scope of all of them, but only around 20 set out specific measures to cut emissions from fossil fuel operations, and just five include quantitative targets for these reductions. Some countries, including Norway, have adopted methane reduction targets and outlined sectoral measures in national action plans that are not included in their NDCs.

IEA analysis suggests that for Global Methane Pledge signatories, achieving a 30% cut in domestic methane emissions (i.e. implementing the GMP target domestically) would deliver a much greater reduction in emissions than is currently implied by their NDCs. Under current NDCs, economy-wide methane emissions in GMP countries would rise in aggregate by around 15% between 2020 and 2030, and by 20% by 2035. This increase is partly due to the widespread use of “business as usual” baselines in NDC targets. By contrast, if these same countries were to achieve a 30% reduction in domestic methane emissions through national policies and regulations, this would cut methane emissions by about 2 gigatonnes of CO2-equivalent (CO2-eq) relative to the levels implied under current NDCs.

Advances in monitoring technologies – notably satellites – have enabled the detection of large emission events. While satellite technology is not perfect, with performance reduced offshore and in mountainous, snowy, icy, overcast and high-latitude regions, satellite systems and data-processing techniques can now detect and quantify emission events ranging from major releases over large areas to smaller facility-level leaks. In 2025, satellites detected more than 5 million tonnes (Mt) of methane from very large emission events in oil and gas operations worldwide.

Several organisations now alert governments and companies to large emission events. Carbon Mapper hosts free and publicly available plume and source data on its data portal, while GHGSat has been notifying governments and industry of large emission events since the launch of its first satellite in 2016. The Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI) launched a Satellite Monitoring Campaign in 2021 and has since published guidance for responding to satellite notifications. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)’s International Methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO) introduced the Methane Alert and Response System (MARS) in 2023, which provides free satellite-based alerts.

MARS uses more than 35 satellite instruments, combined with scientific expertise and artificial intelligence, to notify countries of actionable emission events occurring within their territory. As of early 2026, 24 countries and nine subnational governments had designated a point of contact, or “focal point” (typically within a relevant ministry or agency or national oil company), to receive direct notifications from IMEO. Where no focal point is designated, notifications are shared with the country’s UNEP Permanent Representative. Although prompt responses to MARS notifications have led to successful mitigation in several countries, overall engagement remains low: globally, only around 12% of MARS notifications received a response in 2025.1 Preventing and swiftly addressing major leaks or releases remains a key lever for reducing emissions, and there is substantial scope to improve the speed and effectiveness of action.

Designating MARS focal points could significantly improve response rates. In countries that have nominated a focal point, nearly a third of emissions sources receive a response, and several countries – including Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Yemen – have response rates close to 100%. This contrasts with a 2% response rate across the 14 countries that have received MARS notifications but have no focal point, nine of which have a 0% response rate.

In addition to nominating focal points, governments can also develop response plans to improve engagement with MARS notifications. The IEA, in collaboration with IMEO, has prepared a five-step sequential framework to help countries strengthen their response processes. The IEA and IMEO can provide technical support to governments and national oil companies (NOCs) interested in adapting this framework to their legal, operational and financial contexts.

Beyond MARS, governments can embed super-emitter response programmes into their regulatory frameworks. Kazakhstan is developing such a programme as part of its new methane abatement rules, drawing on multiple data sources (including Carbon Mapper and MARS) and requiring operators to respond to satellite-detected events. In Nigeria, the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency has launched the Nigerian Gas Flare Tracker, which uses satellite technology to monitor and estimate flared gas volumes. In the United States, the California Air Resources Board, in collaboration with Carbon Mapper, has launched the California Satellite Methane Project to support efforts to reduce or eliminate methane leaks. Key elements to consider when designing super-emitter programmes include accreditation criteria for third-party satellite operators, procedures for operator notification, timelines for identifying and mitigating sources, mechanisms for operator feedback, and safeguards for data confidentiality.

The number of countries with enforceable methane and flaring regulations has grown in recent years, including Nigeria, Indonesia and China. Once a regulation is in place, meaningful and lasting emission reductions depend on effective enforcement. Yet in practice, implementation can be hampered by limited access to verification technology, insufficient resources and staff, limited training on methane detection, outdated systems for collecting company data, and the need to coordinate with other agencies with competing priorities.

Building on its 2021 Regulatory Roadmap and Toolkit, the IEA is preparing guidance on the implementation and enforcement of methane policies and regulations in the oil and gas sector.

A range of tools and strategies can help address enforcement challenges. Digital compliance platforms can be set up to collect reports from operators. Risk-based enforcement plans can be adopted, prioritising the largest sources first. Penalties for non-compliance can be introduced, with tiered structures to reflect differences between operators. Satellite technology can be leveraged to detect non-compliant activity and target facilities for verification (though this is generally more effective for large, intermittent emission events than for diffuse low-rate emissions). Regulatory agencies can also coordinate to support a whole-of-government approach to methane abatement, while periodic regulatory reviews can incorporate operator feedback and reflect technological developments.

Effective implementation also requires building out the appropriate regulatory architecture for data collection, verification and enforcement. Agencies responsible for methane reduction need sufficient resources and staff, as well as training to build expertise in methane detection and abatement.