'Worrisome': Global Methane Spike Imperils Climate Goals, Study Warns

[Bundbuster]

https://www.commondreams.org/news/global-methane-spike

Methane emissions are rising faster than expected, a new study has warned, and the surge is putting global climate goals at risk. The study, published Monday in Frontiers in Science, found that methane emissions have risen quickly since 2006, with the growth rates for atmospheric methane seeing an "abrupt and rapid increase" in the early 2020s.

Methane is the second leading greenhouse gas heating the atmosphere and contributing to the climate crisis. It is 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide during the first 20 years after being emitted, but it also fades from the atmosphere much more quickly—in around 12 years rather than centuries. Methane emissions released between the industrial era and 2019 have caused 65% as much global heating as carbon dioxide, according to the new paper.

Methane is emitted primarily by leaks and flaring during fossil fuel production, animal and rice agriculture, and the decaying of organic matter. The authors considered what had caused methane production to spike in the early 2020s specifically, and concluded that the two main drivers were fossil fuels—primarily oil and gas production—and an increase in decomposition rates from wetlands as higher temperatures interacted with La Niña conditions in the tropics.

Methane, Shindell told The Guardian, "is the strongest lever we can quickly pull to reduce warming between now and 2050." "There's just such a rapid response to cutting it," Shindell continued. "We've already seen the planet warm so much that if we are to avoid worse impacts we have to reduce methane. Reducing CO2 will protect our grandchildren—reducing methane will protect us now."

[OKIsItJustMe]

1. EPA: Understanding Global Warming Potentials

(Please note, US Federal Government publication. Copyright concerns are nil.)

https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/understanding-global-warming-potentials

Understanding Global Warming Potentials

Greenhouse gases (GHGs) warm the Earth by absorbing energy and slowing the rate at which the energy escapes to space; they act like a blanket insulating the Earth. Different GHGs can have different effects on the Earth's warming. Two key ways in which these gases differ from each other are their ability to absorb energy (their "radiative efficiency” ), and how long they stay in the atmosphere (also known as their “lifetime" ).

The Global Warming Potential (GWP) was developed to allow comparisons of the global warming impacts of different gases. Specifically, it is a measure of how much energy the emissions of 1 ton of a gas will absorb over a given period of time, relative to the emissions of 1 ton of carbon dioxide (CO₂ ). The larger the GWP, the more that a given gas warms the Earth compared to CO₂ over that time period. The time period usually used for GWPs is 100 years. GWPs provide a common unit of measure, which allows analysts to add up emissions estimates of different gases (e.g., to compile a national GHG inventory), and allows policymakers to compare emissions reduction opportunities across sectors and gases.

• CO₂, by definition, has a GWP of 1 regardless of the time period used, because it is the gas being used as the reference. CO₂ remains in the climate system for a very long time: CO₂ emissions cause increases in atmospheric concentrations of CO₂ that will last thousands of years.
• Methane (CH₄ ) is estimated to have a GWP of 27-30 over 100 years. CH₄ emitted today lasts about a decade on average, which is much less time than CO₂. But CH₄ also absorbs much more energy than CO₂. The net effect of the shorter lifetime and higher energy absorption is reflected in the GWP. The CH₄ GWP also accounts for some indirect effects, such as the fact that CH₄ is a precursor to ozone, and ozone is itself a GHG.
• Nitrous Oxide (N₂O) has a GWP 273 times that of CO₂ for a 100-year timescale. N₂O emitted today remains in the atmosphere for more than 100 years, on average. (Learn why EPA's U.S. Inventory of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks uses a different value.)
• Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) are sometimes called high-GWP gases because, for a given amount of mass, they trap substantially more heat than CO₂. (The GWPs for these gases can be in the thousands or tens of thousands.)

Explore the questions and answers below to learn more about global warming potentials (GWPs).

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