California Methane Symposium Explores How Science and Policy Can Address Powerful Climate Pollutant

(LOS ANGELES – March 12, 2015) Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and Climate Resolve are co-hosting a California Methane Symposium today in downtown Los Angeles. Methane is the main component of natural gas. Its widespread leakage is a potent greenhouse gas that represents a threat to the climate and a waste of a valuable energy resource. Leaders from the White House to the Los Angeles city government are beginning to recognize the impacts of methane and the need for action.

The symposium brings together top climate change and methane experts from leading academic and research institutions with representatives from local and state agencies, utilities, and other organizations to discuss the latest in methane science and policy solutions. They will focus on the science guiding our understanding of methane pollution, why it is important as a warming agent, the state of methane pollution in California and Los Angeles, and policy solutions to address the issue.

“Finding solutions to methane pollution is vital to addressing climate change in California and throughout the United States,” said Tim O’Connor, director of EDF’s California Climate Initiative. “By addressing the issue of methane pollution, we can slow the warming caused by climate change, decrease the waste of an energy resource, create jobs, and make our communities safer places to live.”

The symposium will be comprised of two panels. The first will focus on the science behind methane pollution and what is known based on the latest research about emission sources within Los Angeles and California. The second will focus on policy solutions that are currently being enacted in California and nationally, as well as strategies to increase the benefits of these actions.

“By bringing together the top minds in climate change and methane science with leading regulatory and government officials, we hope to create a space to inform the policy discussion surrounding methane pollution with sound science and cultivate new possible solutions,” said Jonathan Parfrey, executive director of Climate Resolve. “Like many other issues of this caliber, we need local and national solutions to address methane pollution.”

Guests will hear from representatives from the Los Angeles City Council, Alliance for Climate Education, California Institute of Technology, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Air Resources Board, California Energy Commission, Blue Green Alliance, City of Los Angeles Bureau of Sanitation, Climate Resolve, Environmental Defense Fund, Southern California Gas Company, and Climate Action Reserve. The entire event will be translated live into Spanish and information on how to further engage with this issue will be available.