Methane politics: unity and division in the oil and gas industry

A hybrid seminar by Nikolai Drahos to be held on campus at the University of Leeds and online. This seminar is being organised by the METHPOL research project group.

Register: please sign up here, a link will then be shared for online attendance

Abstract:

Methane emissions have emerged as an urgent global climate policy priority, with new regulatory regimes taking shape in several key jurisdictions. This represents a remarkable change from a decade ago when methane emissions were largely unregulated. While the oil and gas industry has often fought methane regulation, at other times it has been divided. Nikolai’s presentation examines why the industry has been unified or divided over methane regulation, and what the consequences have been for the political feasibility of methane policy. His presentation focuses on the United States, where he has spent the last three years interviewing oil and gas executives, NGOs, institutional investors and political elites. More broadly, Nikolai's research sheds light on the role of incumbent industries in environmental politics.

About Niko:

Nikolai Drahos is a PhD candidate at the ANU School of Regulation and Global Governance, where his research focuses on the political history around oil and gas methane emissions. He has over a decade of experience working on climate and energy policy, politics and economics. Nikolai holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) and a Master of Environmental and Resource Economics from the Australian National University. He is a recipient of the Sir Roland Wilson PhD Scholarship, and a visiting fellow in the Gas Programme at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies.

METHPOL is a five-year research project funded by the European Research Council, and based at the University of Leeds, which seeks to explore the many faces of methane politics globally.