Cost-effectiveness of emission-reducing measures for methane in the Netherlands

The present methane emissions in the Netherlands amount to 1190 ktonne per year. It is expected that these emissions will decrease by 20% up to the year 2000 due to environmental policies already in place. However, additional emission reduction may be necessary. In this article, the reduction potential and specific costs of additional methane emission reduction measures are presented. The most cost-effective options are landfill gas recovery and utilisation, increased gas utilisation on offshore natural gas production platforms and large-scale digestion of animal manure. Other, less cost-effective options are composting, fermentation and incineration of wastes otherwise landfilled, replacement of the grey cast-iron network in the natural gas distribution grid, and a doubling of the leak control frequency. It is found that these measures would result in an extra emission reduction of about 310 ktonne CH4/yr, of which about 160 ktonne CH4/yr could be avoided with negative or zero net costs. With respect to the 1990 emissions, this would mean a reduction of about 45% and 30% respectively.