How to Fix Flaring for a Quick Emissions Win

This guide by RMI outlines the environmental impact of natural gas flaring, specifically within the United States, and proposes a seven-step framework for industry actors and policymakers to reduce and eventually eliminate routine flaring to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

• Natural gas flaring releases CO2, methane, black carbon, and other greenhouse gases, with CO2 emissions alone equaling more than 6 million passenger vehicles. Poorly maintained, inefficient, or unlit flares are particularly concerning because they release excess methane, which has a warming potential 86 times greater than carbon dioxide.
• The United States is the world's largest gas producer, with production increasing from 20 trillion cubic feet (tcf) in 2009 to over 33 tcf in 2019. Flaring has also increased; the US Energy Information Administration reported that 538 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas was flared in 2019, a volume that exceeded the total gas consumption of Colorado in the same year.
• The increase in US gas flaring is driven by a lack of pipeline capacity in oil-dominant fields and the perception that capturing flared gas is not economical, especially when gas prices are low.
• RMI proposes seven steps to abate flaring: prohibiting routine flaring by 2025, increasing emissions transparency (including separate disclosure of flared, vented, and leaked gas), implementing climate-aligned lending and buying principles, enabling takeaway options through producer-pipeline cooperation, implementing carbon pricing, creating a comprehensive methane strategy, and promoting collaboration.
• Specific regional examples of flaring mitigation include Alaska and Colorado, which have banned routine flaring, and Norway, where carbon pricing combined with strict permitting and volume limits has resulted in the lowest flare intensity of any country's oil production.

APA

RMI (2021). How to Fix Flaring for a Quick Emissions Win. https://rmi.org/resources/how-to-fix-flaring-for-a-quick-emissions-win/

Chicago

RMI. How to Fix Flaring for a Quick Emissions Win. 2021. https://rmi.org/resources/how-to-fix-flaring-for-a-quick-emissions-win/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=How to Fix Flaring for a Quick Emissions Win |date=27 January 2021 |url=https://rmi.org/resources/how-to-fix-flaring-for-a-quick-emissions-win/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmi2021how, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{How to Fix Flaring for a Quick Emissions Win}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2021}, month = jan, url = {https://rmi.org/resources/how-to-fix-flaring-for-a-quick-emissions-win/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }