What has improved is data. The IEA said: ‘The availability and reporting of methane emissions data have increased substantially in recent years, indicating that around 70% of fossil fuel methane emissions in 2025 came from the top 10 emitting countries.’

According to IEA estimates, energy accounts for 41% of global emissions of methane, amounting to just under 150mn tonnes, followed by agriculture (40%), waste (17%) and ‘other’ (2%).

Upstream activities currently account for 80% of oil and gas methane emissions, the report finds. Canada and the European Union recently introduced robust upstream regulations, while Brazil, Ghana and Kazakhstan are in the process of doing so, according to the IEA.

IEA analysis of energy sector methane emissions by type 

Source: IEA

The International Methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO) has published a list of the top 50 methane emitters in the world, as well as new data about international methane emissions responses, as it expands coverage of its satellite detection programme to include coal mines and landfill sites.

‘By making the biggest sources public, IMEO is scaling methane transparency to accelerate action. When a source is clearly and publicly identified, it becomes easier to act on and harder to ignore,’ said the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which runs the programme.

It added that methane is 80 times more powerful than CO₂ but has a much shorter lifespan, breaking down in the atmosphere after about a decade. That means cutting methane emissions acts like a climate emergency brake.

Of the top 50 sources, 12 are waste sites and 10 are metallurgical coal mines, while a similar number are mines for thermal coal.

In other news, a new report from Ember finds that in 2023, coal mines emitted 34.7mn tonnes of methane, comparable to oil and gas emissions, but there is a problem. The authors say that only a handful of countries account for the majority of coal mine methane (CMM) emissions, yet due to infrequent reporting, 89% of emissions were not reported to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2023.

In 2022, IMEO launched the Methane Alert and Response System (MARS) to warn governments of very large methane emissions based on data collected from more than 30 satellite instruments.

In May, IMEO said: ‘Prompt reaction to MARS notifications has led to the successful mitigation of methane leaks in several countries. However, the global response rate to MARS notifications remains relatively low.’

MARS country response rates, by country, for those with and without a dedicated point of contact for MARS notifications (1 January–31 December 2025)
Note: The response rate is calculated by dividing the number of emission sources for which IMEO has received a response by the number of sources for which MARS has issued an alert, over a rolling 12-month basis.
Source: IMEO

Another new report tracks how well countries are responding to MARS alerts. IMEO said that responding to a MARS alert requires countries and companies to investigate the root cause of the emissions and share information about the event, including whether operators have taken mitigation measures and, if so, what kind. Higher MARS response rates are associated with more mitigation action, but low response rates do not necessarily signal indifference.

Still, UNEP said: ‘Many countries’ response rates indicate room for progress. In some countries, low response rates point to technical barriers. Elsewhere, they signal a need to prioritise methane action.’

IMEO and the IEA have also launched guidance that offers a five-step process for responding to MARS notifications, to help governments make best use of the information.

The IEA’s Global Methane Tracker 2026 can be viewed at https://www.iea.org/reports/global-methane-tracker-2026, while Ember’s Global Coal Mine Methane Review 2026 report can be found at https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/global-coal-mine-methane-review-2026/