“The Methane to Markets program has gotten off to a great start,” Smith said, adding that all four of the partnership’s subcommittees – coal, landfills, oil and gas – were all successful late last year in developing action plans for the progression of the methane recovery program.

Smith said the group was growing not only from the inside but from the outside as well, with several new member countries.

“Since [US president] Bush launched the Methane to Markets partnership in November 2004, the number of partner countries has grown from 14 to 17, spanning the globe and representing over 60 percent of methane emissions in the four sectors that Methane to Markets covers,” she said.

Smith said that dedication has been made even greater by the cooperation of governments and private sector organisations that she referred to as the partnership’s “Project Network”.

She said their involvement was important because that group, made up of coal companies, technology providers and other groups, understood the industry, its challenges and opportunities.

“Project Network now has over 250 members, and that number continues to grow,” she said, adding that the group was instrumental in activities coordinated by the EPA.

Looking forward, the agency is developing workshops and is also in the midst of planning a multi-sector Methane to Markets Partnership Expo to be held in the second half of 2007.

“This Partnership Expo will be a forum to projects, financing, technology and policy,” said Smith.

“[It] provides a great focal point as we move forward so that we can really help to ensure there will be a project and other opportunities ready to be showcased.”

Much of the progress of Methane to Markets goes hand in hand with the progress countries are making on the methane recovery front and each nation’s commitment to the issue.

“There is tremendous interest in working in China, the world’s leading coal producer and leading emitter of coal mine methane,” she said.

“Both the US and Australian governments have launched initiatives to investigate the exploitation of the dilute methane contained in mine ventilation air using technologies to covert the methane to power.”

The Ukraine is another active area, added Smith, since the US Trade and Development Agency awarded a feasibility study to be conducted in the Donetsk region and the US is also sponsoring an in-mine drilling program there.

Additionally, the United Nations Development program Global Environment Facility is helping to fund projects in the Kuzbass coal region of Russia.