Methane mitigation jobs

Wanna help the planet? Methane mitigation jobs are up in the US¹ and Canada.²

In the oil and gas industry, the jobs pay well, topping out at $130,000 for manufacturing and $145,000 for service positions in the US. The studies lay out the geography of the petroleum sector opportunities, which (unsurprisingly) centre on Texas in the US and on Alberta in Canada. Even so, the jobs are scattered widely across both nations.^3,5

Of course, jobs follow investments: where there's money, there's work.

The methane mitigation industry — which the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) characterizes as "turning methane waste into employment" — is growing rapidly⁴ as petro-industry players realize methane recapture can lead to better asset performance (read: "the less gas escapes into the air, the more you can sell"). Jobs will, quite naturally, emerge. The EDF estimates that re-capturable methane represents a $2 billion dollar yearly loss in the US alone.

Not all mitigation captures methane for resale, though. Lots of effort is going into management — suppression — of methane from livestock and landfills.

Globally, according to the Climate Policy Initiative, $13.7 billion was spent in 2021 on methane abatement. This is likely to grow to at least $48 billion annually by 2030.

That's a lot of jobs.

About Hope

If you look at the top of this web page, you'll notice "HOPE", a menu item that takes you to a series of short articles about victories in the climate fight. This is one of those articles.

People don't have a lot of time. They are inundated with negative news about the environment. While these negative news stories can communicate the seriousness of the situation, they can also convince people to believe that things are hopeless ... and they are not. So each little, digestible bit provides a peek into one tiny little thing that has gone right.

Don't think for a minute, though, that any of these issues are simple. Usually, a whole world of physics, chemistry, policy, and actions undergirds each of these stories. We encourage you to look more deeply, to investigate the references at the end of each article, to take advantage of each little positive window into a bigger, more complex situation.

See below for some reading suggestions.

Reading

1. “Methane Mitigation Jobs Are on the Rise | Environmental Defense Fund,” February 18, 2025. https://www.edf.org/methane-mitigation-jobs-are-rise.
2. Pottens, Ari. “SNEAK PEEK: New Maps Detail Canada’s Robust and Growing Methane Mitigation Industry.” Energy Exchange, February 13, 2025. https://blogs.edf.org/energyexchange/2025/02/13/sneak-peek-new-maps-detail-canadas-robust-and-growing-methane-mitigation-industry/.
3. “Growing Strong: Methane Mitigation Industry Expands Nationwide, Driving Economic Growth and Cutting Emissions,” February 18, 2025. https://www.edf.org/media/growing-strong-methane-mitigation-industry-expands-nationwide-driving-economic-growth-and.
4. Climate Policy Initiative. "Landscape of Methane Abatement Finance 2023." Climate Policy Initiative, November 30, 2023. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/publication/landscape-of-methane-abatement-finance-2023/.
5. Environmental Defense Fund. "Three Key Energy Policies That Can Help Us Turn the Corner on Climate." Environmental Defense Fund, June 1, 2016. https://library.edf.org/AssetLink/630bm3846d50uw5yn8hxhoc1ceu1xe3t.pdf.