Sunny Uberoi, Head of Public Affairs
As scrutiny over natural gas’s environmental and social impacts intensifies, investors and the public are demanding greater industry accountability. For investors focused on ESG criteria, MiQ certification provides a credible, data-driven assessment of a company’s methane emissions management. This helps investors identify companies that are taking concrete steps to address a significant environmental concern, thereby supporting more informed ESG-focused investment decisions. This is especially relevant with the increase in LNG exports to Europe, as the introduction of new methane regulations highlights the value of MiQ certification in facilitating responsible natural gas investments.
The critical role of methane emissions disclosure in investor decision-making has been well documented. Investors are increasingly seeking more granular, forward-looking environmental data to assess operators’ climate-related risks and opportunities properly.
MiQ offers an independent, third-party certification system, rigorously audited, that grades natural gas production on an A-F scale. This transparent evaluation covers three key criteria:
- Methane emissions intensity at the facility level
- Monitoring technology deployment
- Company practices for managing methane emissions
MiQ certification allows investors to assess the environmental performance and sustainability of natural gas producers with greater confidence. This certification process also helps educate investors across several key areas:
- Transparency and Credibility: MiQ delivers a rigorous, standardized, and independently verified system for methane emissions reporting, moving beyond self-reported data. This independent verification builds trust in the methane performance of certified projects, equipping investors with reliable data to guide decision-making.
- Comparability Across Investments: With a consistent metric for methane emissions intensity (g/MMBTU), MiQ certification allows investors to assess methane performance across companies, supporting informed ESG investments by enabling clear comparisons.
- Risk Reduction and Long-Term Value: MiQ certification signals a commitment to best practices in emissions management, aligning with ESG investors’ priorities for sustainability and risk mitigation. The MiQ standard’s grading system promotes continuous improvement and is designed to encourage ongoing enhancement in methane emissions monitoring and abatement. Participation in MiQ’s certification system, alongside disclosure requirements on the MiQ Registry, motivates companies to improve their practices to achieve higher certification levels.
- Facilitating Regulatory Compliance: As methane emissions regulations evolve, MiQ certification can help companies demonstrate their proactive approach to emissions management. This can potentially ease regulatory compliance and reduce associated risks for investors, which is particularly relevant as Europe implements its methane regulation agenda.
Final Thoughts: Driving Industry-Wide Progress
By certifying a significant portion of the global gas supply (over 5% as of 2024), MiQ is helping to establish an industry-wide benchmark for methane emissions performance. This broad adoption facilitates comparisons across the industry and geographies as well as helping drive overall progress in emissions reduction.
Since our inception, MiQ certification has provided transparent and credible assessments of methane emissions management, creating market incentives for improvement, and facilitating industry-wide progress. For investors, this translates to greater confidence in ESG-focused investing by offering a clear, standardized metric for evaluating a critical aspect of Scope 1 environmental performance in the oil and gas sector.