A methane emissions cleanup drive has begun in Canada’s top oil and gas-producing jurisdiction, with the bills paid by levies imposed on companies that miss provincial carbon reduction targets.

The Alberta government announced that the methane control campaign will use C$52 million ($39 million) from a banked waste carbon penalty fund called TIER, short for Technology Innovations and Emissions Reduction.

An ambitious cleanup target has been set: a cut of annual Alberta methane emissions equivalent to 1.5 million tons of carbon. On the greenhouse gas scale, methane rates as much as 25 times more potent as a cause of global climate change than carbon dioxide emitted from burning fossil fuels.

The provincial cleanup money will go into efforts called the Methane Technology...