By Olivia Rosane and Cristen Hemingway Jaynes
Fast Key Details
- Methane is the second most necessary greenhouse fuel after carbon dioxide and is accountable for round one-third of present international heating.
- Atmospheric methane concentrations have elevated by 256 p.c since pre-industrial instances.
- Methane is a extra highly effective greenhouse fuel than carbon dioxide however lasts for a lot much less time within the environment; over a 20-year interval, methane traps 86 instances extra warmth per unit of mass than CO2.
- Round 60 p.c of methane emissions come from human-caused sources and 40 p.c come from pure sources.
- Ninety p.c of human-caused emissions come from three sources: fossil fuels, agriculture and waste storage.
- At the moment current methods, if adopted, can be sufficient to curb methane emissions from these three sources by 45 p.c by 2030.
- It’s doable to chop methane emissions from oil and fuel operations by 70 p.c with current applied sciences and strategies and by 40 p.c without charge.
- Research have proven that including seaweed dietary supplements to the diets of cattle can lower their methane emissions by 82 p.c for feedlot cattle, greater than 50 p.c for dairy cows and 42 p.c for grazing cattle with out harming the animals.
- As of 2023, solely 13 p.c of all methane emissions have been lined by any type of emissions-reduction coverage.
- If everybody within the European Union restricted their meat and dairy consumption by 34 p.c, they’d stop six million metric tons of methane emissions per 12 months.
What Is Methane?
What has no shade or odor and is present in wetlands, cow burps and your basement furnace? The reply is methane — a strong greenhouse fuel that’s the second most necessary contributor to the local weather disaster after carbon dioxide (CO2). It’s the major element of pure fuel, which at the moment generates round 25 p.c of the world’s electrical energy.
Methane is a hydrocarbon composed of 4 hydrogen atoms bonded to a carbon atom. It’s considerable in nature and might be shaped by each geological and organic processes. Geologically, methane is often created when warmth and stress are utilized to decomposing plant and animal matter over hundreds of thousands of years. That is the supply of most pure fuel. Methane can even type deep underground with none natural matter via different processes. Biologically, methane is generated via one thing referred to as methanogenesis, when sure underwater microorganisms referred to as archaea produce methane as a part of their oxygen-free respiration course of. That is how methane is generated above floor, similar to in wetlands or within the digestive tracts of termites and cows.
How Is Methane Measured?
Methane is measured by way of two fundamental strategies: backside up and high down. These strategies work virtually precisely as they sound. Backside-up approaches start on the bottom with a localized supply of methane and increase outward. These assessments can both be primarily based on direct measurements of a given facility’s methane emissions or by estimations primarily based on basic information concerning the emitting animal or tools. For instance, to estimate the methane produced by a area or nation’s beef or dairy sector, a bottom-up strategy might multiply the methane emitted per cow by the variety of cows being raised. The same strategy may very well be used to calculate the methane launched by a county’s pure fuel services or a area’s oil drilling operations.
High down approaches typically actually begin within the sky with measurements of atmospheric methane, often by way of airplane, high-altitude platforms or, more and more, satellites. This knowledge can then be mixed with information of the place there are methane sources and sinks and used to create fashions of methane emissions.
Satellite tv for pc picture of methane emissions from a landfill in Kyrgyzstan on Feb. 4, 2021. GHGSat
As satellite tv for pc know-how improves, it’s detecting super-emitting incidents that aren’t mirrored in bottom-up approaches. For instance, if a fuel firm assesses its methane emissions by multiplying the usual leak fee of a chunk of kit by the variety of items of that tools it makes use of, it should miss the 5 p.c of extraordinary leaks which can be accountable for greater than half of all gas-industry leak emissions. General, direct measurements — whether or not from the bottom or the air — are necessary for precisely measuring fossil gasoline methane emissions particularly. One research discovered that direct measurements of U.S. oil and fuel methane emissions have been 60% greater than U.S. Environmental Safety Company estimates. Usually, enhancing methane measurements is crucial for understanding and subsequently controlling its emissions.
How Does Methane Contribute to the Local weather Disaster?
Methane is a greenhouse fuel, which signifies that, when it enters the environment, it absorbs warmth power emitted from the planet and redirects it again towards the bottom. There are pure methane sinks — specifically soil and the troposphere, the place methane is damaged down into carbon dioxide and water vapor. These sinks are capable of counteract naturally occurring methane emissions in order that the fuel doesn’t construct up within the environment. Nonetheless, human actions for the reason that begin of the commercial revolution — significantly the burning of fossil fuels, extra intensive types of agriculture and waste storage — have raised the focus of methane within the environment sooner than pure sinks can take in it.
As of 2023, the latest 12 months for which knowledge is out there, atmospheric methane focus had soared by 265 p.c to 1,934 ppb in contrast with pre-industrial ranges. Round 60 p.c of that methane was emitted as a result of human actions. That methane has contributed to round one-third of present international heating, second to CO2 at round two-thirds. If nothing is finished to cut back methane emissions, they’re projected to rise by 13 p.c between 2020 and 2030.
Controlling methane emissions is crucial for addressing the local weather disaster as a result of methane is each stronger than CO2 and likewise lasts for a shorter time period within the environment, roughly 12 years in contrast with lots of. Over a 20-year interval, methane traps 86 instances extra warmth per unit of mass than CO2, which falls to twenty-eight instances extra over 100 years. The mix of methane’s efficiency and comparatively quick atmospheric lifespan signifies that decreasing methane emissions delivers a strong bang for one’s buck by way of quickly curbing greenhouse gasses and stabilizing international temperatures. In truth, the World Methane Evaluation concluded that curbing methane “may be very probably the technique with the best potential to lower warming over the subsequent 20 years.” The Intergovernmental Panel on Local weather Change (IPCC) has calculated that methane emissions have to be diminished by round 34 p.c by 2030 when put next with 2019 ranges with a purpose to restrict international heating to 1.5 levels Celsius above pre-industrial ranges.
What Are the Foremost Sources of Methane?
Methane comes from each human and pure sources, with human-caused emissions accountable for round 60 p.c of atmospheric methane and pure sources round 40 p.c. Greater than 90 p.c of present human-caused methane emissions come from three sources: agriculture, fossil fuels and waste storage. The burning of biomass and using biofuels additionally emit methane however are much less necessary, as they’re accountable for round 5 p.c of emissions. Wetlands and freshwater are the main supply of pure methane emissions, adopted by geological sources similar to gas-oil seeps and volcanoes, termites, oceans, wild animals and permafrost. As well as, there are pure sources of methane that might play a bigger function sooner or later because the local weather disaster triggers numerous suggestions loops.
Agriculture
Round 40 p.c of human-caused methane emissions come from agriculture. The overwhelming majority of those emissions are from livestock, which alone generate round 32 p.c of human-caused methane emissions. That is primarily from enteric fermentation, which is how ruminant animals like cows, sheep and goats digest their meals. Microbes in these animals’ digestive methods break down vitamins and produce methane as a byproduct. In the case of methane emissions, cows raised for meat or milk are the first contributors. One other approach that livestock agriculture can generate methane is thru the storage of manure, significantly that of pigs and cows. As meat consumption will increase, these emissions are projected to rise by six million metric per 12 months by 2030.
A second necessary agricultural contribution to human-caused methane emissions is the cultivation of rice at eight p.c. Rice is grown in flooded patties, an setting that encourages the expansion of methane-producing microbes. Lastly, round one p.c of human-caused methane emissions are attributable to the burning of agricultural waste.
Fossil Fuels
The extraction and burning of fossil fuels contribute round 35 p.c of human-caused methane emissions. Primarily, this happens via the extraction, transport and use of oil and fuel, at 23 p.c of human-caused emissions. Methane is often launched throughout venting, when undesirable fuel is launched into the environment in the course of the extraction course of, in addition to via unintended leaks from extraction to move to make use of. Emissions from oil and fuel are anticipated to extend by 10 million metric tons per 12 months by 2030, particularly due to using pure fuel.
Round 12 p.c of human-caused methane emissions are launched in the course of the strategy of mining coal, or from leaks from deserted coal mines. Methane naturally happens alongside coal seams, and might be launched in a number of methods in the course of the mining course of: via seepage when the coal is uncovered to the floor, via drainage methods, via air flow methods to cut back methane buildup in a mine for security causes and from the coal itself as it’s faraway from the mine. Underground mines are likely to emit extra methane than floor mines, at 70 p.c of mine emissions.
Sure fossil gasoline initiatives emit huge quantities of methane directly, often as a result of leaks or venting. These are referred to as “super-emitters” and are detectable via satellite tv for pc imaging. In 2022, researchers detected greater than 1,005 human-caused super-emitter incidents — 559 at oil and fuel fields and 105 at coal mines. The worst, in Turkmenistan, spewed 427 metric tons of methane per hour, the equal of the hourly emissions of France. As methane emissions elevated within the 2010s, specialists suppose that fossil gasoline actions contributed as a lot as agriculture and waste storage mixed.
Landfills and Waste
Round 20 p.c of human-caused methane emissions come from landfills and waste administration methods. It’s because microbes current in wastewater therapy services and landfills launch methane as they decompose the waste. This may generate a lot of methane directly: Of the 1,005 super-emitter occasions recognized by researchers in 2022, 340 have been from waste websites.
Due to inhabitants progress and projected improvement in poorer nations, emissions from waste are anticipated to develop sooner than from another human-caused methane supply at 13 million metric tons per 12 months by 2030. The quantity of human-disposed strong waste general is predicted to rise by 73 p.c by 2050.
Wetlands
Wetlands are the predominant supply of pure methane emissions, accounting for round one-third of complete methane emissions. It’s because wetlands — which cowl round six p.c of the Earth’s land space — are outlined by having their soils saturated with water for all or a part of the 12 months. This creates a moist, oxygen-poor setting that creates perfect situations for the archaea accountable for methanogenesis.
Whereas wetlands would produce methane it doesn’t matter what people do, the local weather disaster has led to a rise in wetland methane emissions lately as a result of temperature will increase and altering rainfall patterns. This is called the “wetland methane suggestions.” Between 2000 and 2020, wetland methane emissions elevated by 1.2 to 1.4 million metric tons per 12 months, which is the next fee than anticipated by probably the most pessimistic emissions situations. Scientists famous that these emissions noticed “distinctive progress” in 2020 to 2021 particularly. The researchers traced this enhance to 2 sources: tropical wetlands and permafrost wetlands.
Tropical wetlands are increasing their space as a result of climate-fueled modifications in rainfall patterns and have been the main driver of elevated wetland methane emissions within the early twenty first century. Permafrost wetlands are situated within the Arctic and, because the title suggests, are partially frozen along with being waterlogged. When hotter temperatures trigger permafrost to soften, additionally they unfreeze the microbes that launch methane. Arctic wetlands have additionally expanded by 25 p.c in the course of the summer season as a result of an increase in precipitation.
Oceans
The ocean is accountable for one to 13 p.c of pure methane emissions via numerous mechanisms together with geological marine seepage; emissions from ocean sediments or melting underwater permafrost; emissions close to coastal areas the place groundwater enters the ocean; and the destabilization of methane hydrates, that are ice-like formations of methane and water on the seafloor. The most important focus of methane on Earth is saved in these hydrates, and there are considerations that, because the local weather disaster causes oceans to heat, these deposits would possibly soften and launch huge quantities of methane into the environment. Nonetheless, there isn’t a proof that any methane from these hydrates is at the moment reaching the environment.
Optimistic Local weather Suggestions Loops
A constructive suggestions loop happens when a change to a given system triggers different modifications that amplify that preliminary change. Within the case of the local weather emergency, a constructive suggestions loop happens when the impacts of worldwide heating work together with Earth’s methods in ways in which set off extra warming. When these modifications cross a sure threshold, it may well alter the system in dramatic and irreversible methods. That is referred to as a local weather tipping level.
Methane is concerned in a number of constructive suggestions loops, of which the wetland methane suggestions is only one instance. One other associated instance is the thawing of the Arctic permafrost, frozen soils on land in addition to beneath the Arctic Ocean. The fabric that’s frozen beneath the permafrost accommodates plant and animal matter, in addition to microbes that will produce methane in the event that they thawed out. The permafrost beneath the ocean accommodates methane hydrates. Which means the Arctic at the moment accommodates 2.5 instances extra carbon underground than exists within the environment. Thawing the permafrost would launch all or a few of that carbon, triggering a serious tipping level. This course of has already begun, with Arctic and Boreal methane emissions growing by 9 p.c since 2002. Scientists don’t know precisely how a lot methane the melting permafrost would possibly finally launch, however the area is at the moment on tempo to launch the greenhouse fuel emissions of a serious industrialized nation if nothing is finished to cut back warming.
One other constructive local weather suggestions loop involving methane is the rise within the frequency, severity and dimension of wildfires. A hotter local weather makes the new, dry situations that gasoline wildfires extra probably, and these fires in flip launch carbon dioxide and methane into the environment as they burn, fueling extra warming. Bigger fires additionally are likely to launch extra methane. One research discovered that California’s record-breaking 2020 wildfire season contributed virtually 14 p.c of the state’s complete methane emissions for the 12 months.
Methane and the ‘Bridge Gasoline’ Fable
Another excuse methane emissions would possibly spike sooner or later is the growth of fuel manufacturing, together with a rise in exports of liquefied pure fuel (LNG). The event and unfold of fracking within the U.S., Canada and Australia particularly has made fuel rather more considerable and set off a development increase in infrastructure to export and import the gasoline. The U.S. has massively elevated its LNG exports because it lifted a ban on them in 2016, turning into the No. 1 pure fuel exporter on the earth by 2022. These exports doubled between 2019 and 2021 and can double once more in 4 years in the event that they proceed.
Advocates of pure fuel have argued that it’s a “bridge gasoline” from coal to extra renewable sources of power. It’s because when burned for power, coal emits twice as a lot carbon dioxide per kilowatt-hour as pure fuel. Within the U.S., direct energy plant emissions decreased by virtually 40 p.c within the first a long time of the twenty first century, as fuel overtook coal because the nation’s main electrical energy gasoline supply. Proponents of exporting U.S. LNG argue that it might equally displace coal use in Europe and Asia. Nonetheless, this ignores the methane that leaks in the course of the strategy of extracting and transporting LNG. If solely 0.2 p.c of methane leaks, it makes LNG as climate-warming as coal, and new knowledge, together with satellite tv for pc imagery, means that the quantity of methane leaks have been vastly underestimated. A 2023 research calculated that, when methane leaks are taken into consideration, LNG has a 33% larger international warming potential over 20 years than coal. Additional, the Division of Power just lately concluded that LNG exports usually tend to change renewable power sources than coal.
This new understanding comes as extra fuel fields and LNG export and import terminals are being deliberate. A 2022 evaluation discovered that there are 55 “methane bomb” fuel fields whose future methane leaks would equal 30 years of U.S. greenhouse fuel emissions. The present and proposed development of LNG export terminals within the U.S., in the meantime, would cancel out any local weather progress the nation has made, protecting its greenhouse fuel emissions frozen at 2005 ranges. As U.S. local weather campaigner Invoice McKibben warned, “If the LNG build-out continues — right here and in Canada and Australia — its sheer dimension will overwhelm our efforts to rein in international warming.”
What Are Different Advantages to Decreasing Methane Emissions?
Whereas stopping the acceleration of the local weather disaster is a serious argument for decreasing methane emissions, these emissions don’t simply warmth the environment. In addition they contribute to ground-level ozone, which types as methane reacts to the environment. Ozone at floor degree is a serious public well being and environmental hazard as a result of it damages human lung tissue, triggering respiratory illnesses, and harms crops together with agricultural crops. At the moment, methane-generated ozone causes about half one million additional deaths per 12 months. Nonetheless, each million metric tons of methane emissions averted would additionally stop 1,430 yearly deaths from respiratory and coronary heart ailments; 4,000 asthma-related emergencies and 90 hospitalizations per 12 months; and annual losses of 145,000 metric tons of wheat, soybeans, maize and rice.
What Can Be Finished to Cut back Methane Emissions?
There are a lot of methods to cut back methane emissions that vary from large-scale transformations of power and meals methods to smaller technical fixes. Most definitely a mixture of strategies shall be obligatory to regulate methane emissions to cut back international heating and ozone air pollution. Nonetheless, at the moment current strategies, if adopted, can be sufficient to curb methane emissions from the three fundamental human-caused sources — fossil fuels, agriculture and waste — by 45% by 2030, in keeping with the IPCC’s pathway to 1.5 levels.
From Agriculture
There are two fundamental methods to cut back the quantity of methane produced by the meals system. The primary is to remodel the meals system altogether by decreasing meat and dairy manufacturing. This may be performed partly by decreasing meals waste, as 30 to 40 p.c of all meals produced is misplaced and doesn’t make it to an individual’s abdomen. In accordance with one calculation, the waste of ruminant and rice merchandise is accountable for round 50 million metric tons of methane per 12 months, and decreasing it might reduce these emissions by round 20 million metric tons. One other approach is to shift towards extra wholesome, sustainable or plant-based diets, together with by decreasing general consumption in wealthier nations. In accordance with the IPCC, doing so would cut back greenhouse fuel emissions general by 5.3 to twenty.2 gigatons of carbon-dioxide equal by 2050. Potential emissions reductions from dietary shifts run from 0.7 to eight gigatons of carbon dioxide equal per 12 months by 2050, beneath situations starting from half of the planet adopting a “wholesome” eating regimen that features lower than six grams of animal protein per day to a worldwide embrace of vegetarianism.
The second fundamental technique for decreasing methane emissions from agriculture is to make modifications to current manufacturing in order that it releases much less methane. A technique to do that is to extend the effectivity of animal agriculture in order that extra meat or milk is produced per animal, particularly in poorer nations. This may be performed with out sacrificing animal welfare by feeding animals higher diets, together with extremely digestible feed; enhancing animal well being general; and breeding. One other answer is so as to add enteric methane inhibitors to the diets of ruminants, which stop methane manufacturing of their guts. Promising examples are the chemical 3-NOP and seaweed. Research have proven that including seaweed dietary supplements to the diets of cattle can lower their methane emissions by 82 p.c for feedlot cattle, greater than 50 p.c for dairy cows and 42 p.c for grazing cattle with out harming the animals in any approach. Researchers are additionally working to breed ruminants who produce much less methane and to develop a vaccine that will restrict intestine methane manufacturing.
One other main supply of agricultural methane that may be focused for discount is manure storage. Options embrace decreasing the period of time manure is saved; overlaying tanks holding semi-solid waste; separating liquid and strong manure; and including acid to manure storage services, which inhibits the expansion of methane-producing microbes. One other answer that has been adopted lately is using manure digesters, which flip manure into biogas, decreasing manure’s methane emissions and offering a non-fossil type of power. Nonetheless, there are rising considerations that methane leaks from these machines could undermine their influence.
Lastly, emissions from rice might be curbed by numerous strategies. One technique is to develop both greater yield or lower-methane styles of rice, which cut back the quantity of methane emitted per kilogram. Planting lower-methane rice might reduce emissions by 22 to 51 p.c. Another choice is to alter how rice is grown by utilizing Various Wetting and Drying. As an alternative of protecting rice paddies flooded, this methodology entails letting them dry out utterly earlier than flooding once more and might lower emissions by 40 to 45 p.c. Lastly, including phosphogypsum and sulphate to rice fields can lower microbial methane manufacturing.
From Fossil Fuels
The No. 1 method to cut back methane emissions from fossil fuels is to part out their use solely as quickly as doable whereas quickly transitioning to renewable types of power that don’t emit methane and particularly to halt the buildout of LNG infrastructure. Nonetheless, there are additionally methods to cut back the methane emissions from fossil gasoline infrastructure nonetheless in use, and actually decreasing methane emissions from ongoing oil and fuel operations is taken into account the technique with probably the most short-term potential for important methane cuts.
In accordance with the Worldwide Power Company (IEA), it’s doable to slash the oil and fuel sector’s methane emissions by 70% with current applied sciences and strategies and by 40% without charge. These strategies embrace leak detection and restore, putting in units to detect methane and phasing out tools that releases methane when used. For coal, it’s tougher to cut back emissions whereas nonetheless mining and burning coal, however there are methods similar to requiring new mines to make use of degasification wells and drainage boreholes to seize methane and capturing and reusing methane in current mines. Additionally it is doable to keep away from methane emissions from tools now not in use by capping deserted fuel wells and flooding retired mines.
From Landfills and Waste
Ideally, one of the best ways to cut back methane waste from landfills can be to maneuver towards a zero-waste round financial system that reuses all materials throughputs. Particular methods towards this objective embrace decreasing meals waste, protecting natural waste out of landfills and diverting it towards composting methods, capturing methane emissions from landfills and overlaying landfills with soil containing organisms that may break down methane.
Decreasing methane emissions from wastewater can largely be achieved by upgrading therapy services. This contains changing latrines with precise wastewater therapy crops and ensuring that services that present major therapy — eradicating strong air pollution — additionally present secondary therapy — eradicating natural matter and vitamins with the assistance of micro organism and microorganisms — and tertiary chemical therapy. Wastewater therapy crops will also be constructed to seize and reuse biogas.
Direct Removing
Whereas it is very important quickly transfer to cut back human-caused methane emissions, some scientists are investigating strategies of instantly eradicating methane from the environment to enhance these efforts. This may be achieved in two fundamental methods: by bolstering the skills of pure ecosystems to take away and retailer methane and thru direct geoengineering.
On the ecosystem aspect, scientists have found that tree bark has exceptional methane-absorbing talents, because it accommodates organisms referred to as methanotrophs that primarily eat methane. Preserving forests, reforesting or deliberately planting tree species which have larger methane-storing capability might all be methods to make the most of this nature-based answer.
A possible geoengineering methodology can be to launch iron salt into the environment. This could mimic what occurs when mud from Sahara sand storms collides with the ocean spray of the Atlantic — instigating a chemical course of that breaks down methane. Nonetheless, extra analysis is required to find out if and the way this may very well be performed each safely and successfully. Finally, it’s most secure to depend on the strategies that we all know work to cease methane from reaching the environment within the first place.
What Progress Has Been Made to Cut back Methane Emissions So Far?
On the COP26 United Nations local weather change convention in 2021 in Glasgow, Scotland, the UK and United States launched the World Methane Pledge. As of January 2025, a complete of 159 nations had joined the pledge. Pledge members agreed to work towards chopping international methane emissions by 30% of 2020 ranges by 2030. Doing so can be in step with limiting international warming to 1.5 levels Celsius above pre-industrial ranges and will stop 0.2 levels Celsius of warming by 2050. Whereas the pledge’s web site claims that it has “generated unprecedented for methane mitigation,” that is but to manifest in real-world reductions.
Methane emissions broke a brand new report in 2023, the latest 12 months for which knowledge is out there. Though the oil and fuel sector provides probably the most risk for speedy methane cuts, and roughly 80% of that sector falls beneath a methane-reduction pledge, its complete emissions have continued to rise since 2020 and remained previous 120 million metric tons per 12 months in 2024. All methane pledges made by governments and firms as of 2023 would in principle be sufficient to cut back fossil gasoline methane emissions by 50% by 2030, however to do that the {industry} should shut its implementation hole. Additional, there are main gaps in these commitments. As of 2023, solely 13 p.c of all methane emissions have been lined by any type of emissions-reduction coverage.
What Can People Do to Cut back Methane Emissions?
The 2 easiest, only issues that individuals can do to cut back their particular person methane emissions are to modify to lower-methane diets and to cut back their each day meals waste via measures similar to meal planning, shopping for “ugly” meals and composting. In the event you really feel intimidated on the considered going solely vegetarian or vegan, even simply decreasing your meat and dairy consumption could make a distinction. One research discovered that if everybody within the European Union restricted their meat and dairy consumption by 34%, they’d stop six million metric tons of methane emissions per 12 months.
In case you are a home-owner who both cooks on a fuel range or receives warmth by way of a fuel furnace, you’ll be able to change your fuel vary with an electrical or induction possibility and swap your furnace for an electrical warmth pump. Renters could not be capable to swap out home equipment, however they’ll nonetheless cut back their fuel use by discovering artistic methods to avoid wasting power — similar to air-drying garments — or supplementing fuel heating and cooking home equipment with electrical units like house heaters, rice cookers, microwaves or induction burners.
Finally, methane emissions — like all local weather air pollution — are the merchandise of complicated power, meals and waste methods which can be saved in place partly as a result of they profit highly effective people who find themselves at the moment cashing in on them. Decreasing your private methane emissions won’t remake these methods by itself, however it’s also possible to be part of along with like-minded individuals to marketing campaign for change. This might vary from lobbying your metropolis authorities to create a municipal composting system to becoming a member of or supporting teams like 350.org, Third Act, Oil Change Worldwide, Louisiana Bucket Brigade and South Texas Environmental Justice Community which can be working to cease the LNG buildout globally, nationally and of their communities.
Takeaway
Methane emissions current each a menace and a chance. As a result of methane is a lot stronger than carbon dioxide, it may well additional turbocharge the worldwide heating that’s already elevating the thermostat and fueling extra excessive storms and different climate occasions. Nonetheless, its shorter atmospheric lifespan signifies that appearing urgently to chop its emissions would allow us to make necessary and well timed headway on combating the local weather disaster general. That’s the reason it’s necessary to unfold the phrase about methane — the way it’s launched and learn how to cut back it — and to place stress on political and enterprise leaders to behave on that information.
