Capterio and CCSI Release Landmark Report “Igniting Action” Offers Roadmap to Tackle Global Gas Flaring Crisis
Capterio and the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment (CCSI) have published a major new report Igniting Action to Reduce Gas Flaring: Real Opportunities, Real Projects, Real Results which offers a practical, project-focused path to reducing global gas flaring. This report is a call to act. Flaring is a solvable crisis — but only if we treat it like one.
The report draws on six real-world case studies that go beyond the “what” and “why” of flare reduction, and discuss the “how”: how to implement projects. The report has two broad recommendations: firstly a new framework to assess the net climate impact, and secondly, a set of actionable commercial, financial and policy levers for 5 major stakeholder groups.
Click to download the whole report, or to download our country case study for Algeria, Egypt or Federal Iraq, or to download our project case study for ALNG in Angola, Los Toldos in Argentina or Sarqala in Kurdistan. You can also speak to Flario, our conversational chatbot about the report here.
Captero’s award-winning FlareIntel platform is uniquely able to help companies and countries to create value from flaring reduction. FlareIntel tracks every flare for every asset, for every company in every country, multiple times every day. FlareIntel helps to improve visibility into flaring (especially for non-operated assets), to drive operational performance and to prioritise investment opportunities. To find out more about FlareIntel please email flareintel@capterio.com.
Watch our launch video:
Details on the report from the press release
Despite years of commitments, global gas flaring remains persistently high, hovering around 140–150 billion cubic meters (BCM) annually and releasing up to 1 billion metric tons of CO₂-equivalent greenhouse gases each year. Dr. Mark Davis, CEO of Capterio, emphasizes: “Capturing flared gas offers a rare triple win—significantly cutting emissions, boosting revenues by up to $30 billion, and enhancing both energy security and progress toward the energy transition.”
These opportunities are within reach. The report highlights that successful flare reduction projects are often technically feasible, financially attractive, and operationally achievable. What they require, however, as Andrew Bernstein, Senior Fellow at CCSI, puts it, is “an integrated thoughtful and collaborative approach, underpinned by leadership, appropriate incentives, and an unrelenting focus on delivery over rhetoric.”
The report draws on six real-world case studies from Angola, the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Argentina, Federal Iraq, Egypt, and Algeria. These examples go beyond the “what” and “why” of flare reduction, and discuss the “how”: how to implement projects, navigate complexity, and deliver results in high-flaring regions.
The report shows that—with grit and collaboration—this problem can be solved. In showcasing the progress, this report seeks to recognize successes and inspire others to act.
The report, however, identifies three essential conditions for progress:
- Create an investable environment by ensuring access to attractive markets, enforcing flaring penalties, applying incentives, and implementing cost-effective infrastructure solutions that avoid lock-in.
- Prioritize collaboration across governments, NOCs, and IOCs with a country-first mindset, integrated energy planning, and creative fiscal structuring.
- Lead with commitment from both governments and companies, pairing bold ambition with on-the-ground delivery.
Two sets of recommendations support these findings. The first introduces a novel framework to assess the net climate impact of flare-reduction projects, moving beyond simple emissions accounting. As Perrine Toledano, Director of Research and Policy at CCSI emphasizes, “our framework can make a valuable contribution to the prioritization of flare-reduction opportunities based on their decarbonization potential, over and above the analysis of economic value and opportunity.”
The second outlines actionable commercial, financial, and policy levers, including developing investable environments, applying incentives and enforcing penalties, harnessing the power of data to identify opportunities and drive operational excellence, adopting creative structures such as infrastructure clusters and mobilizing capital. As Tom Mitro, Senior Fellow at CCSI put it, “with t billions of tons of GHG emissions at stake, adopting an actionable framework is essential to achieving meaningful progress and delivering results.”
This report is a call to act. Flaring is a solvable crisis — but only if we treat it like one. The rewards are immense: fewer emissions, stronger energy systems, and billions in unlocked value.
About Capterio
Capterio is a UK-based company that delivers flare solutions through analytics, advisory, and project development. Its award-winning platform, FlareIntel, provides high-frequency, asset-level visibility of flaring globally.
About CCSI
The Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment is a joint center of Columbia Law School and the Columbia Climate School. It works to promote sustainable international investment through research, policy, and advisory work with governments and partners worldwide.
Contacts
Perrine Toledano @ ptoled@law.columbia.edu
Mark Davis @ mark.davis@capterio.com
