The Vancouver Sun reports in its Tuesday edition that at the COP28 climate conference last week in Dubai, the Canadian government announced proposed regulations to curb methane emissions at oil and gas production sites in an effort to slow global warming. The Sun's Nathan Griffiths writes that the proposed regulations aim to cut methane leaks and releases from the oil and gas industry by at least 75 per cent over 2012 levels by 2030. They would require oil and gas companies to stop flaring, the intentional burning of waste methane from their sites, with some exemptions for safety reasons. The Sun analyzed World Bank data on gas flaring in British Columbia and Canada going back a decade and found that despite significant reductions, close to one billion cubic metres of natural gas was burned off through flaring in 2022, creating as much greenhouse gas emissions as running 4-1/2 natural-gas-fired power plants for a year, according to an EPA tool to estimate CO2 emissions. Amanda Bryant, an analyst with the Pembina Institute's oil and gas program, called flaring a "major problem." Many oil and gas producing U.S. states already prohibit the waste of oil and gas during production and restrict the practice of routine flaring.