Fixing ultra-emitting methane leaks is a low-cost climate win

Enlarge (credit: Sean Hannon)

Giant methane plumes from fossil fuel extraction and transportation are losing the industry millions of metric tons of methane—at high costs for the climate, society, and even the industry’s pocketbooks.

Although methane emissions are relatively low compared to CO₂ emissions, each ton has a whopping 30 to 80 times the relative warming potential (depending on the timescale of interest). On the plus side, methane has a much shorter atmospheric lifetime—roughly nine years. So reigning in emissions as soon as possible represents one of the better bets for lowering temperatures in the coming decades.

But to date, methods for detecting methane emissions have been limited, and it has been challenging to find, measure, and curtail all anthropogenic sources. A recent study describes how researchers used a European Union satellite to carry out a global survey of unusually large methane plumes, finding 1,800 “ultra-emitters” during the time frame of 2019 to 2020. Two-thirds of these emitters were connected to the oil and gas industry, and just three countries—including the US—were responsible for the majority of the problem.