Wastewater utilities use anaerobic digestion and biogas utilization to reduce energy costs and emissions, but methane leakage can undermine both the climate benefits and project economics of these systems, especially as power grids decarbonize. Safeguarding climate integrity will require performance-based methane policies that pair robust monitoring with enforceable leakage thresholds and targeted leak detection and repair.
Li et al. (2026) studied this question.