Coal ash, manure pit flooding pose environmental risk.

Royal Dutch Shell said Monday it’s implementing stricter targets on methane emissions to help reduce its carbon footprint and impact on global warming.

Shell said it aims to lower its methane emissions by 2025 to below 0.2 percent of the natural gas it produces and transports. The effort is part of Shell’s broader goal to cut its net carbon footprint on all of its products in half by 2050.

Methane is the main component of natural gas and a potent greenhouse gas that escapes into the atmosphere during oil and gas production and from leaks in pipelines. Shell said it will deploy infrared cameras and other advanced technology to scan for emissions and leaks from wells and pipelines and take remedial actions as needed.

Shell is among several of the world’s biggest oil companies, including Exxon Mobil Corp. and BP, that have taken steps to cut methane emissions even as the Trump administration moves in other

directions. The administration recently proposed loosening Obama-era regulations on methane leak monitoring and on methane flaring at the well sites.

The growing interest of oil majors in curbing methane emissions comes as Shell and other companies pivot away from crude oil and toward cleaner-burning natural gas. Shell paid more than $50 billion in 2016 to buy the British natural gas giant BG Group.

Natural gas produces far less carbon dioxide than coal and oil and is considered a bridge fuel for the world until renewable energy sources like wind and solar power become more widespread and affordable. But methane emissions — from gas wells to pipeline leaks — have long been considered the Achilles’ heel of natural gas. Methane has 80 times the global warming effects of carbon dioxide, although its impacts don’t last as long in the atmosphere.

“This is an industrywide issue, and we need to fix this fast. We must get a much more accurate understanding of how much we are emitting,” said Maarten Wetselaar, Shell’s integrated gas and new energies director.

Mark Radka, head of the United Nations’ energy and climate branch, said the Shell commitment should send signals to the broader industry.

“Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, but it has a relatively short lifetime in the atmosphere,” Radka said. “That means reducing methane emissions brings immediate climate benefits, buying some time while we work out longerterm solutions.”

A study this summer found that annual methane emission rates from energy companies are about 60 percent more than what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reports. The projected 13 million metric tons of methane emitted each year is the equivalent of about $2 billion in lost natural gas — enough to fuel about 10 million homes.

Most of the previously unreported emissions come from infrequent malfunctions at oil and gas wells that release large amounts of methane into the air without detection for prolonged periods, according to the study.

Oil and gas companies appear to be taking the issue seriously. Last fall, for instance, Exxon Mobil, the nation’s largest natural gas producer, said it would stem its methane emissions from U.S. onshore activities and followed that up in May with a broader pledge to reduce methane emissions by 15 percent worldwide by 2020.

The oil and gas sector is the largest source of U.S. methane emissions, according to the Energy Department. Surging gas production from shale drilling and hydraulic fracturing, called fracking, has increased methane emissions through much of the past 10 to 15 years.