Methane Matters: The Key to Slowing Climate Change Faster
Can we get methane pollution under control? We finally are able to pinpoint the sources of methane, but will we act?
Scientists tell us that methane pollution is a huge contributor to global warming. Although the tons emitted are much smaller than that of carbon dioxide, it is much more potent as a greenhouse gas. Over a 20-year period, it causes 80 times more increase in global warming than carbon dioxide per ton of emissions. As a result, the increase in methane in the atmosphere has been responsible for over one-third of the rise in global temperature of 1.3 degrees Celsius, perhaps as much as 0.5 degrees. If we could get rid of human-caused methane, we could reverse most of that 0.5-degree climb in the next twenty-five years. That’s because methane disappears rapidly – if we were to stop putting any into the atmosphere, its quantity would fall in half in just ten years. This means tackling our methane pollution can speed up our efforts to reduce the impacts of climate change.
Cows and other farm animals are responsible for a substantial proportion of methane pollution, one of the many reasons to reduce consumption of red meat. This methane comes from the gases they release during digestion as well as from their manure. Scientists are attempting to reduce this methane by introducing a specific type of seaweed into their diet, however, it’s hard to get them to eat this seaweed when they are grazing so it usually is only given to them when they are in their feedlot, which may be a small portion of their life. Agriculture is the second biggest source of methane.
Wetlands are the biggest source globally. In freshwater wetlands such as peat bogs, bacteria produce a steady drip of methane. Saltwater wetlands do not have this problem. In some cases, sea barriers have been built that turned formerly saltwater wetlands into freshwater. If access to the ocean is restored, then these areas can revert to their natural state. Recently, it was shown that twice as many freshwater wetlands could be treated this way.
Natural gas is mostly made up of methane, over 95%. One-third of US methane pollution is leaked by the fossil fuel industry. That leakage is an area where we could make progress quickly, according to the petroleum industry itself.
We now know that the US oil and gas production has been generating a lot more methane pollution than reported. According to the petroleum industry reports, 0.3 percent of US methane production was being leaked into the atmosphere. Data from monitors, including special flights of methane monitoring airplanes and now from satellites, it appears that 0.6 percent of production is leaking into the atmosphere—twice as much. So the bad news is that production is very badly managed, but the good news is that this could be remedied fairly easily, with enough cooperation. Indeed, the industry has pledged to get this down to 0.2 percent. Monitoring can help reduce this pollution to a fraction of its current rate – and the corporations say this can and will be done, which is likely since it will save them money in the long run. The EPA under Biden passed a ruling implementing a methane emission charge on the oil and gas industry – methane emissions will cost $1200 per metric ton in 2025, if the ruling is allowed to stand under the Trump administration.
The steel industry generates a lot of methane from its use of metallurgical coal. According to a report by the United Nations Environmental Programme, this methane could be contained at a cost of only 1 percent of the price of steel. This is another case where methane reduction can be easily undertaken.
The good news is that in 2021 at COP26, many of the nations of the world finally made a pact to reduce human-caused methane by thirty percent by 2030. If accomplished, that would reduce the global temperature by at least 0.1 degrees and go a long way to helping us keep below 2 degrees in warming this century.
The bad news is that some of the biggest methane polluters, including China, India and Russia, have not signed this pledge. If Trump takes the US out of this pledge the four biggest polluters, accounting for 38 percent of the global emissions, will not be part of the pact. Unfortunately, methane going into the atmosphere has increased, up 5 percent since 2020, rather than declining.
Fortunately, methane science is moving ahead, and we are increasingly finding better ways of knowing where the methane is coming from and how to reduce it once the sources are identified.
One problem with getting rid of methane is that we don’t know enough about where the methane is coming from. Fortunately, that is changing rapidly. In the past several months, two more satellites have gone into service – one, in March, sponsored by the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund called MethaneSAT that provides sweeping views of methane rising from the EarthUS, and another from the Carbon Mapper Project called Tanager 1 which takes very detailed pictures of methane plumes. These join a growing web of other satellites (11 others since 2022), that also are able to detect methane. The International Space Station also is able to do some monitoring as well now. Climate Trace pulls together various methods of detection of greenhouse gas emissions and displays the result on an online interactive map. You can filter for various greenhouse gases including methane.
At the local level, we can push for less use of natural gas. Some localities are banning natural gas in new buildings, notably New York State, although often with important exemptions.
In Philadelphia, POWER Interfaith has been pushing for maintaining public accountability at city-owned gas utility PGW. They also have been pushing southeast PA’s electric utility PECO to do more long term contracting with renewable electricity producers rather than petroleum and gas electricity producers. We should also pressure governor Josh Shapiro to make carbon emissions more costly to PA electric utilities by signing on to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
And at the individual level, we can help by switching from gas stoves to electric and from gas heating to electric heat pumps.
Methane pollution is an area where substantial progress can be made; what is lacking is the economic and political will. Now that we have systematic, consistent detection of methane emissions, we can hold countries and companies liable. As the climate gets worse, this will become a greater priority. The current efforts are too slow: we need to keep the pressure on!
Global Sources of Methane Emissions, 2023
SOURCES
Report: An Eye on Methane, United Nations Environmental Programme https://www.unep.org/resources/eye-methane-2024
International Energy Agency, Methane Tracker:
https://www.iea.org/reports/global-methane-tracker-2024/understanding-methane-emissionsFinancial Times; How Oil and Gas Companies Hide Methane Emissions
https://www.ft.com/content/374e78dc-69ae-419e-a583-0842b3833d9d