Since Russia stopped its natural gas supplies to Europe, it has been flaring large quantities of gas. This is only one, but particularly irritating, facet of the unfortunately widespread problem. For the mass burning of “superfluous” gas is common practice in oil and gas production. There are about 10,000 flares worldwide with an annual exhaust volume of 144 billion cubic metres. This is roughly equivalent to the emissions of 200 million vehicles. During combustion, large quantities of methane, a particularly harmful greenhouse gas, also escape. Hans Jürgen Wernicke from GES has compiled background information and proposed solutions to the problem.