What’s New: Earlier this month, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and the Observatorio Mexicano de Emisiones de Metano (ObMEM) hosted a seminar-workshop to co-create a research agenda for understanding the health benefits of reducing methane and related emissions from Mexico’s oil and gas sector. The seminar brought together stakeholders from government, industry and civil society, including public health and global development organizations.  

At the meeting, participants examined the public health benefits of reducing emissions, identified priority research areas and discussed strategies for translating research into actionable policy solutions. 

Why It Matters: Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas that contributes significantly to climate change. It also has detrimental health effects, largely due to its associated co-pollutants. Cutting methane is not only one of the most effective ways to combat global warming in the short term, but it also offers immediate health benefits, decreasing risk for respiratory, cardiovascular and congenital diseases.  

It is crucial that methane policies account for both climate and health benefits, particularly for communities living near oil and gas facilities. A deep understanding of the health benefits of methane reduction in the oil and gas sector is essential to catalyzing meaningful action. The forthcoming research agenda will emphasize these co-benefits, strengthening the case for more robust and urgent mitigation efforts. 

What They’re Saying: Participants in the meeting, including EDF experts, Mexican and U.S. researchers expressed the importance of linking health research to climate policy, noting how existing data on the health impacts of methane is limited and often fragmented.  

• Dr. Veronica Southerland from EDF stressed the need for updated data on emissions and pollutants, citing gaps in health studies and their role in informed decision-making. 

• Researchers Dr. Horacio Riojas Rodriguez, Carla Flores Lot, and Dr. Omar Amador-Muñoz discussed their projects, highlighting gaps like poor detection of harmful pollutants, adverse birth outcomes linked to Mexico’s oil and gas sector, and regional impacts of methane emissions.  

Panelists agreed that prioritizing data and research, along with enhancing the engagement of key stakeholders, could drive more effective climate and health policies. 

What’s Next: The first next step for the workshop partners will be to refine the research agenda based on the meeting’s outcomes. Partners will next organize a follow-up convening to align on a final research agenda and shared priorities, outline priority research projects that are actionable for policymakers, and consider ways to deepen impact by collaborating with Mexico’s new presidential administration on implementation. 

By focusing research efforts on most-affected populations, EDF, Obmem and other partners hope to better characterize exposure to methane and its co-pollutants and quantify health impacts. The research agenda ought to ensure that methane reduction policies are informed by robust health data and contribute to environmental and public health improvements. EDF and its partners are committed to advancing this agenda as a vital step towards integrating health considerations into climate action strategies in Mexico and beyond. 

About the Observatorio Mexicano de Emisiones de Metano (Obmem) 

OBMEM, the Mexican Methane Emissions Observatory, was created to inform and raise awareness about the negative impacts associated with methane emissions, as well as to drive action towards fulfilling international commitments and national regulations related to reducing methane emissions from the oil and gas sector. It is composed of the Mexican Climate Initiative, the Mexican Center for Environmental Law, and Nuestro Futuro A.C. 

About Environmental Defense Fund 

Environmental Defense Fund (edf.org), one of the world’s leading nonprofit environmental organizations, creates transformative solutions to the most pressing environmental problems. To achieve this, EDF links science, economics, law, and innovative partnerships. With over 3 million members and offices in the United States, China, Mexico, Indonesia, and the European Union, EDF’s scientists, economists, lawyers, and policy experts are working in 28 countries to turn our solutions into action.