Governments and industry are working to improve resource efficiency and reduce emissions from natural gas supply – from both domestic production and imports – to help deliver on their climate goals, while also looking to improve energy security. One emerging approach is natural gas certification, which can help buyers make more informed decisions by providing independently verified greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity data at select stages of the supply chain, from production and processing to storage and transport, but excluding final consumption. This can support the implementation of best practices throughout the entire supply chain, and help importing countries and regions better understand how natural gas consumption fits within their wider emissions reduction policies and pledges.

Certified natural gas is natural gas whose environmental and social attributes –such as GHG emissions performance, water use, local community impacts and worker safety – have been independently verified against defined criteria or benchmarks. In 2024, around 320 billion cubic metres (bcm) of produced natural gas was certified – coming entirely from North America – equivalent to 7.5% of global natural gas production.

Certification by itself does not reduce methane or carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from natural gas operations, nor does it eliminate emissions from its end-use combustion. However, by improving transparency on GHG emissions along the natural gas supply chain – particularly on methane, a potent short-lived climate pollutant – certification can incentivise operators to introduce measures to reduce these emissions. Since methane is the main component of natural gas, action to reduce methane emissions can also bring additional gas to market. More than 50 bcm of additional gas could be brought to markets by reducing methane leaks and flaring along natural gas supply chains.

This report examines the current status of natural gas certification and related voluntary initiatives around the world. It highlights that existing voluntary schemes and reporting initiatives have shown the potential for natural gas certification to reduce emissions and improve energy security. However, it also notes that there are both overlaps and gaps in existing schemes that could undermine natural gas buyers’ trust, confidence and interest in certified natural gas. For example, most schemes do not require measurement-based emissions data, instead simply encouraging operators to deploy measurement technologies. Certification schemes often have different focuses and methodologies, reducing the ability of gas buyers to understand how different suppliers of certified natural gas compared to each other. Certified facilities are overwhelmingly in the upstream segment, with limited attention paid to GHG emissions along the fully supply chain. Certification also remains limited outside North America. Finally, some certification schemes have been questioned for their perceived lack of transparency and integrity, reducing some of the trust in certified natural gas.

To address these challenges, one key policy action that governments can take is to develop an internationally recognised and harmonised framework for measuring and verifying the GHG intensity of natural gas supply chains. Developing such a framework, building on the work already initiated under the US-led MMRV initiative, can reduce buyer confusion, enhance trust in GHG emission claims and facilitate market-based differentiation between various natural gas supplies – potentially paving the way towards price premiums for low-intensity natural gas. Harmonisation can also enhance transparency, enable interoperability across supply chains, reduce regulatory burden, and provide a consistent basis for comparing GHG emissions performance, all of which are essential for scaling up the role of certified natural gas.

Policy makers can also support natural gas certification by ensuring that certification standards meet certain minimum requirements, including as regards third-party verification, direct measurement and transparency. Legislation on environmental claims provides an avenue for governments to ensure that certification programmes comply with such minimum requirements.  

To scale effectively and remain sustainable, certification schemes must also be cost-efficient for operators and be paired with clear market mechanisms that reward lower-emissions gas. Governments can foster greater adoption of certification through public procurement and targeted measures to unlock private sector demand and financing.

Certification is not a standalone solution, but it can increase GHG emissions transparency and performance for natural gas and therefore support broader efforts to reduce GHG emissions and improve security of supplies.