Energy corporations and state-owned facilities allowed methane emissions from the energy sector to remain at near record levels in 2025, according to the International Energy Agency. This systemic waste of a collective resource occurred while the war in the Middle East squeezed energy supplies, creating artificial scarcity that benefits capital. The IEA's global methane tracker 2026 report concluded that tried-and-tested abatement measures could make 200 billion cubic metres of natural gas, currently lost to the atmosphere, available annually to international markets.
Capital's Waste and Scarcity
The International Energy Agency's global methane tracker 2026 report, based on satellite data and measurement campaigns, presented findings for 2025, detailing emissions and exploring abatement measures. The report highlighted that if select countries with existing gas export capacity and importing countries implemented readily accessible methane abatement measures across their gas systems, nearly 15 billion cubic metres of gas could swiftly be made available to markets. Over the longer term, these measures could deliver nearly 100 billion cubic metres of gas to markets each year, representing a significant potential for surplus extraction currently being squandered. Furthermore, the elimination of non-emergency gas flaring could unlock an additional 100 billion cubic metres of gas. The continued allowance of these emissions by capital, despite the clear technical solutions, underscores a prioritization of short-term cost avoidance over the efficient use of resources and the collective good.
Global Sites of Extraction and Pollution
Satellite analysis conducted by the Stop Methane Project at the University of California, Los Angeles, documented mega-leaks of the potent greenhouse gas across the world in 2025. The top 25 list of these super-polluting plumes was overwhelmingly dominated by facilities located in Turkmenistan, a secretive and authoritarian state where the scale of methane leaks has been previously characterized as “mind-boggling.” The United States also contributed to this global pollution, with the largest mega-leak detected in 2025 occurring in Texas, releasing 5.5 tonnes of methane per hour. This single incident generated emissions equivalent to running approximately a million fuel-guzzling four-wheel drives. Venezuela and Iran also reported multiple mega-leaks originating from state-owned facilities, demonstrating a widespread failure across different state models to control capital's environmental impact. The Stop Methane Project's analysis extended to super-polluting plumes from landfill sites, where mismanagement of rotting organic waste releases vast volumes of methane, with the worst sites identified from Turkey to Algeria and Malaysia to the US.
The State's Complicity
In October 2025, six months ago, Turkmen officials, including Muhammetberdi Byashiev, the head of the environmental protection department at the state company Türkmengaz, claimed that methane mega-leaks had been reduced. Byashiev asserted that “Management has placed this under special control, and leaks are being repaired locally within two to three days,” citing collaboration with the UN, IEA, and EU. However, the independent analysis from the Stop Methane Project directly contradicted these assertions, showing that substantial mega-leaks in Turkmenistan continued unabated. This discrepancy reveals how state apparatuses, even when engaging with international bodies, can serve to obscure the ongoing environmental destruction facilitated by state-owned enterprises, rather than genuinely addressing the systemic issues of waste and pollution driven by capital's imperatives. The framing of solutions by the IEA in terms of "making gas available to markets" further illustrates how reform efforts within the existing economic system aim to manage contradictions without challenging the fundamental structures of fossil capital.