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| Thu, 6th May 2021 13:55:00 |
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Cutting methane gas 'crucial for climate fight' |
Reducing emissions of methane gas is vital for tackling climate change in the short-term, a major UN report says.
Methane is produced when living things decompose; it's also in natural gas.
It persists for just a short time in the atmosphere - unlike carbon dioxide - but methane is a much more potent global warming gas than CO2.
The report says "urgent steps" are necessary in order to reduce methane if global warming is to be kept within a limit laid down in the Paris deal.
This agreement, signed by 200 countries, aims to keep the global temperature rise to within 1.5C above pre-industrial levels by the end of this century.
The 1.5C target is regarded as the gateway to "dangerous" warming, where the planet could experience serious adverse effects of climate change.
The report comes as data showed both CO2 and methane (CH4) in the atmosphere reached record highs last year.
This happened despite pandemic lockdowns, which massively reduced economic activity.
The good news is that the UN report says rapid and significant reductions in the greenhouse gas are possible using existing technologies and a very low cost.
Methane is also a source for another gas - ozone - in the lowest layer of the Earth's atmosphere (known as the troposphere)
In addition to saving money, cutting methane would yield significant health benefits by reducing the amount of ground-level ozone - a pollutant that's harmful to the human body.
The recommendations come from an international team of scientists, who have produced the Global Methane Assessment for the UN Environment Programme (Unep).
Drew Shindell, the study's lead author, and a professor of Earth science at Duke University in Durham, US, agrees CO2 is the number one target in the fight against climate change, but says cutting methane will have a more rapid impact.
"So many aspects of climate change are happening faster than expected", he said. "We see more fires, more of the strongest hurricanes, more heatwaves, and methane is the best lever we have to reduce the growth in those over the next 30 years."
Scientists regard a temperature rise of 1.5C above pre-industrial levels as a gateway to "dangerous" warming of the planet. The Paris agreement, signed by nearly 200 countries, aims to keep the increase to within the 1.5C target.
The new report says measures available now could reduce emissions from human activities by as much as 180 million tonnes a year by 2030 - 45% of the total per year.
The main sources of human-related methane are the fossil fuel industry, which accounts for 34% of total emissions, agriculture which contributes another 40% and the waste sector 20%.
Read original full article
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