Why Methane Might Be The Key To Beating Climate Change
Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
To address the climate crisis effectively, immediate action on methane emissions is essential. Methane has contributed about half the global warming we've experienced so far, and emissions are climbing rapidly. An international team of climate researchers writing today (July 30) in Frontiers in Science set out three imperatives to cut methane emissions and share a new tool to help us find the most cost-effective ways of doing so.
The world has been rightly focused on carbon dioxide, which is the largest driver of climate change to date," said Professor Drew Shindell of Duke University, lead author. Methane seemed like something we could leave for later, but the world has warmed very rapidly over the past couple of decades, while we've failed to reduce our CO2 emissions. So that leaves us more desperate for ways to reduce the rate of warming rapidly, which methane can do."
Methane is the second most potent greenhouse gas, but only about 2% of global climate finance goes towards cutting methane emissions. These emissions are also rising fast, due to a combination of emissions from fossil fuel production and increased emissions from wetlands, driven by the climate crisis. To slow the damage from climate change and make it possible to keep global warming below 2C, we need to act immediately, following the Global Methane Pledge to reduce methane emissions by 30% from their 2020 level by 2030.
[...] Methane doesn't accumulate in the atmosphere in the long term, so emissions reductions take effect more quickly. If we could cut all methane emissions tomorrow, in 30 years more than 90% of accumulated methane-but only around 25% of carbon dioxide-would have left the atmosphere.
Reference: The methane imperative" 30 July 2024, Frontiers in Science.
DOI: 10.3389/fsci.2024.1349770
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