Investors urge EU not to let a methane rules pause become a prolonged delay
The head of the investor group IIGCC is urging EU energy ministers to keep any delay to the Methane Regulation tightly limited as they weigh the Commission's proposed one-year postponement. She argues a longer delay would undermine planning by companies and investors.
European Union energy ministers are meeting in Brussels this week to consider the European Commission's proposal to postpone selected requirements of the EU Methane Regulation for fossil-fuel importers by one year. The regulation sets rules for measuring, reporting and verifying methane emissions in the oil and gas sector, including imports. The proposal is moving quickly through the legislative process. Stephanie Pfeifer, CEO of the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC), has published a sponsored opinion piece urging that any delay be tightly limited.
The investors' position
Pfeifer notes that sixty investors, managing more than €9.5 trillion in assets, previously called for the regulation to be maintained and implemented as adopted. That call came before the Commission proposed the one-year delay, but she says its core concern still applies: investors need a stable framework to plan, manage risk and allocate capital.
She argues that methane performance reflects a company's operational discipline, process safety and quality of management oversight, and that measurement, reporting and verification rules would improve the availability and comparability of data. As a major oil and gas importer, the EU could use clear import requirements to create a more level playing field for suppliers.
Recommendations for ministers
The author acknowledges that energy affordability is a legitimate concern for businesses and households, but maintains that competitiveness, affordability and effective methane management can be combined. A three-year postponement, she says, would serve neither investors nor companies. It would weaken incentives to prepare, slow the market for independent verification services and could disadvantage firms that have already invested in measurement and reporting.
If a one-year adjustment is judged necessary, ministers should define it precisely, with a clear end date and no reopening of the core provisions. The period should be used to provide clear guidance from national authorities, practical ways to link methane data to imported fuels, and clear standards for non-EU countries whose methane rules are recognised as comparable to EU requirements.
The piece is a political advertisement paid for by IIGCC; the author's views do not necessarily represent all of its members.
