Feds aim to reduce meth­ane emis­sions

Stricter rules tar­get oil and gas sec­tor, land­fills in 2028

This article was written by Catherine Morrison and was published in the Toronto Star on December 17, 2025.

The fed­eral gov­ern­ment is plan­ning new reg­u­la­tions to cut meth­ane emis­sions from the oil and gas sec­tor and land­fills.

A fed­eral doc­u­ment says the new rules for oil and gas oper­at­ors, which expand on reg­u­la­tions intro­duced in 2018, strengthen leak detec­tion and repair require­ments and set new stand­ards on vent­ing.

The new rules apply to upstream pro­duc­tion, pro­cessing and trans­mis­sion facil­it­ies in Canada’s onshore oil and gas sec­tor, includ­ing gas plants and pipelines.

The doc­u­ment says the reg­u­la­tions will be phased in start­ing Jan. 1, 2028, and will help the Cana­dian oil and gas industry with pro­du­cing “low­meth­ane intens­ity products and sup­port­ing long­term suc­cess in a tech­no­lo­gic­ally advanced, decar­bon­iz­ing industry.”

The gov­ern­ment estim­ates that between 2028 and 2040 it will see a cumu­lat­ive green­house gas emis­sions reduc­tion of 304 mega­tonnes of car­bon diox­ide equi­val­ent.

New land­fill meth­ane rules will also require own­ers and oper­at­ors of reg­u­lated land­fills to mon­itor the land­fill sur­face, land­fill gas recov­ery wells and equip­ment used to con­trol land­fill meth­ane emis­sions.

The fed­eral gov­ern­ment estim­ates that land­fills accoun­ted for 17 per cent of Canada’s meth­ane emis­sions and three per cent of its green­house gas emis­sions in 2023. It says the reg­u­la­tions will allow for early detec­tion of meth­ane emis­sions and leaks that must be repaired within spe­cified timelines.

By 2040, the reg­u­la­tions are expec­ted to reduce green­house gas emis­sions by 100 mega­tonnes of car­bon diox­ide equi­val­ent.

“This announce­ment is about build­ing the strong eco­nomy of the future,” Envir­on­ment Min­is­ter Julie Dab­rusin said in Burn­aby, B.C., Tues­day. “One that is cleaner, more com­pet­it­ive and more resi­li­ent.”

The gov­ern­ment is also announ­cing nearly $16 mil­lion in fund­ing for invest­ment in meth­ane emis­sion reduc­tion tech­no­lo­gies across Canada. Meth­ane is a green­house gas more than 80 times more potent than car­bon diox­ide over a 20­year span, but its life­time in the atmo­sphere is up to a dozen years versus cen­tur­ies for CO2.

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Author: Ray Nakano

Ray is a retired, third generation Japanese Canadian born and raised in Hamilton, Ontario. He resides in Toronto where he worked for the Ontario Government for 28 years. Ray was ordained by Thich Nhat Hanh in 2011 and practises in the Plum Village tradition, supporting sanghas in their mindfulness practice. Ray is very concerned about our climate crisis. He has been actively involved with the ClimateFast group (https://climatefast.ca) for the past 7 years. He works to bring awareness of our climate crisis to others and motivate them to take action. He has taken the Climate Reality leadership training with Al Gore. He has created the myclimatechange.home.blog website, for tracking climate-related news articles, reports, and organizations. He has created mobilizecanada.ca to focus on what you can do to address the climate crisis. He is always looking for opportunities to reach out to communities, politicians, and governments to communicate about our climate crisis and what we need to do. He says: “Our world is in dire straits. We have to bend the curve on our heat-trapping pollutants in the next few years if we hope to avoid the most serious impacts of human-caused global warming. Doing nothing is not an option. We must do everything we can to create a livable future for our children, our grandchildren, and all future generations.”