With the world’s focus on cutting CO2 emissions to slow global warming, cutting methane emissions is often overlooked. But with more potential to warm the planet in the short-term, it’s time to tackle methane gas emissions.
According to The Economist, “over the 20 years following its emission, a tonne of methane causes 86 times more warming than does a tonne of CO2, but only sticks around the atmosphere for about 10 years.”
Why Focus on Methane?
If methane emissions will eventually disappear within a decade or two, why focus on them at all?
The Climate and Clean Air Coalition argues that “reducing human-causing methane emissions over the next 30 years could shave 0.18°C off the average global temperature in 2050.” It doesn’t sound like much but it could mean the difference between meeting the Paris Agreement goals of stabilizing temperatures between 1.5-2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial averages.
Also, since the majority of methane emissions comes from oil, gas and coal power plant leaks, it is in companies’ financial interests to cut those emissions. Their products are literally seeping away, costing them millions of dollars in profit.
The International Energy Agency estimates that 75% of emissions from the oil and gas sector—some 16.5% of total human emissions—could be avoided and that 40% (9% of total human emissions) could be eliminated at no net cost.
Sources of Methane
Where do methane gas emissions come from? The three largest sources are leaky natural gas pipes, natural gas and oil production sites, and coal extraction.
In 2018, instruments mounted on planes found 850,000 tonnes of methane a year was drifting up from Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and Boston.
A 2018 study published in Science measured leaks from a third of America’s natural-gas supply chain and oil-producing sites. The researchers estimated that 13m tonnes of methane escaped from these facilities each year.
The IEA estimates that each year the world’s coal mines release 40m tonnes of methane. While coal mines are falling into disuse in most of the world, it is not happening fast enough with new mines in Asia accounting for a further 13.5m tonnes of methane being released each year.
Other sources of methane include belching cattle, rice paddies, forest fires, slash-and-burn agriculture, trash dumps, wastewater-treatment plants, cars and trucks, and natural ecosystems such as swamps, rivers and lakes.
What Governments are Doing
In October 2020, the European Commission adopted a “European methane strategy” with a goal to cut the EU’s methane emissions in 2030 to a level 35-37% below those of 2005. Europe’s methane strategy will focus on better monitoring of emissions for the gas, oil and coal industries, landfills, as well as the agricultural sector.
In the US, Democrats are trying to reinstate methane emissions rules that were waived under the Trump Administration. The rules are meant to restore Environmental Protection Agency requirements meant to fix methane leaks from oil and gas wells, pipelines and equipment. President Biden has ordered the EPA to write new, more stringent rules on fixing methane leaks in oil and gas equipment built before 2015.
In March 2021, the House Committee on Energy & Commerce unveiled the “Climate Leadership and Environmental Action for our Nation’s Future Act” or the “CLEAN Future Act.” The bill includes provisions for reducing methane emissions from the oil and gas sector by 65% below 2012 levels by 2025, and 90% below 2012 levels by 2030.
Biden has also released his American Jobs Plan which among other proposals, seeks $16 billion for plugging oil and gas wells and restoring and reclaiming abandoned coal, hardrock, and uranium mines. The investment will reduce the methane that leaks from these wells, as well as aging pipes and distribution systems.
Methane Gas under the Arctic
Even with governments and companies tackling leaking pipes and reducing methane emissions, a new and harmful source of methane gas could be released as the arctic glaciers begin to melt. Scientists at the Geological Survey of America say that currently the glaciers exert enough pressure on the buried reserves of methane to keep them from releasing. But as the glaciers melt and the pressure decreases, methane would begin to escape.
Scientists are not sure how much methane would be released because millions of microbes feed on the methane buried under the ice. According to the geological record, during the last glacier melt in the Eemian period, methane was released in violent spurts and slow seeps but eventually stabilized in the atmosphere.
Methane Eating Bacteria
In addition to bacteria eating methane under the Arctic, scientists have recently discovered methane-eating bacteria living within the bark of Australian paperbark trees. The discovery published in Nature Communications found that the microbial communities ate about one third of the methane emissions from paperbark that would otherwise have ended up in the atmosphere.
Some trees, particularly in wetlands release methane gas. Dead and decomposing trees can also release methane. While trees play an important role in drawing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, learning which trees emit the most methane will help to plant forests more effectively.
The release of methane gas whether from power plants, leaky pipes, agriculture or nature itself poses a huge problem for warming of the planet but it is not a problem that is unsolvable. If your company is concerned about its methane emissions or becoming a more sustainable business, contact SSC for a free consultation.