Millions more people are in danger due to toxic chemicals emitted during gas flaring than was previously thought, according to a BBC report.
Flaring, or the burning of surplus gas produced during oil drilling, is occurring throughout the Gulf, especially in the United Arab Emirates, which is hosting COP28 beginning this week. According to the investigation, pollution is extending hundreds of miles and degrading the region's air quality.
Routine flaring was outlawed in the United Arab Emirates 20 years ago but satellite imagery revealed that it is still going on, possibly with negative health effects on residents and those in nearby nations.
What is gas flaring and what is the reason for it?
The process of burning natural gas used in oil production is known as gas flaring.
The custom has endured since oil production started more than 160 years ago. It happens for a variety of reasons, such as lack of political will, inadequate regulation and market and economic limitations.
The majority of gas flaring over the previous 10 years has been attributed to Nigeria, Venezuela, Algeria, Iran, Iraq, Russia and the United States, according to the World Bank's Global Gas Flaring Tracker Report.
It claims that in recent years, gas flaring has increased in Mexico, Libya and China.
What is the impact of gas flaring?
Flaring is a waste of a precious natural resource that could be conserved or put to better use, such as producing electricity. For example, the 140 billion cubic metres of gas that are flared annually could power all of sub-Saharan Africa.
What can be done to stop gas flaring?
Energy companies are being urged by the World Bank to collect the gas and market it to consumers and businesses. But, because the gas contains dangerous compounds, it must be processed before it can be used safely. Because of the high cost of this, businesses would rather flare the gas.
According to the World Bank, there are other options. Businesses can use the petrol as fuel in petrochemical factories to power their oil drilling sites or in mobile electricity generating stations.
To increase the pressure in oil reservoirs and increase the amount of oil that can be extracted, companies can re-inject gas underground.
Some energy companies vent gas that escapes from oil fields. They do not burn it; instead, they release it into the sky. But because it releases methane, a potent greenhouse gas, this is worse than gas flaring.
The Zero Routine Flaring by 2030 (ZRF) initiative, introduced in 2015 by the UN secretary-general and the World Bank, commits governments and oil companies to refraining from routinely flaring gas in any new oil field development and to ending existing routine flaring as soon as feasible but no later than 2030.
