What is methane and why is it important to reduce its emissions?

After the European Union and the United States have promoted this Tuesday since the Glasgow climate summit an ambitious plan to reduce methane emissions by 30% in the next decade, this gas, which until now has been more in the background of the COP negotiations, it has jumped to the forefront.

The promoters of this pact assure that meeting this objective would allow limit temperature rise by 0.2 ° C by 2050 and prevent 200,000 premature deaths, hundreds of thousands of emergency hospital admissions for asthma, and the loss of 20 million tons of crops a year.

When we talk about reduce polluting emissions, we almost always talk about carbon dioxide. It is the main greenhouse gas, the main responsible for warming the atmosphere. But not the only one.

“CO2 tells us how much the planet is going to heat up; methane tells us how fast this warming is going to take place, the rate at which it is generated,” he synthesizes Manfredi Caltagirone, Acting Director of the new International Methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO).

It is estimated that a quarter of global warming is due to the impact of methane in the atmosphere, while the concentration of that gas is increasing at the fastest rate in history. Currently is 2.6 times higher that in 1750, and according to experts, this sustained increase can be attributed mainly to human activity, fossil fuels and livestock.

What is and how is methane produced?

CH4 is a colorless, odorless gas produced by bacteria that decompose organic matter. A recent study by the International Energy Agency (IEA) detailed that 40% of the world’s methane emissions come from Natural sources, mainly from wetlands. The remaining 60% is linked to human activities: almost 25% corresponds to agriculture and livestock, another 21% is due to fossil fuels and almost another 12% to waste.

Experts agree that the sector in which it is easier to act now is fossil fuels, specifically pointing to the methane leaks that occur in the oil, gas and coal industry.

The IMEO observatory presented by the United Nations and the European Union at the G20 Summit, which aims to promote action to reduce methane emissions, has already begun its work focused precisely on fossil fuels, since that is where reducing emissions is considered relatively easier and less expensive.

The Copernicus Atmospheric Surveillance Service (CAMS), for its part, has announced that it is working on a new tool with which it will be able to monitor emissions anthropogenic carbon dioxide and methane almost in real time and individually.

Less interest

Methane has historically received less interest than carbon, and thus has been less studied. But the acting director of IMEO believes that “we must fill the knowledge gap about where, how much and when more emissions occur.”

Precisely, the global pact presented at COP26 seeks not only reduce the amount of methane released into the atmosphere, but also develop “better inventory methodologies to quantify methane emissions.”

At the moment, it is a commitment of a hundred countries, but “we must begin to implement it so that countries and companies can credibly mitigate emissions,” says Caltagirone. “This is only the beginning of the methane challenge, not the end,” he concluded.