Rising Methane Emissions Could Derail the Paris Agreement

An unexpected acceleration in methane growth is threatening to negate or reverse efforts to stave off climate change by reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Although scientists don’t know where all the extra methane is coming from, it’s clear that drastically reducing emissions from man-made sources will be necessary to meet the goals of the 2015 Paris climate agreement, researchers say.

A storm over the Bangweulu wetlands in Zambia, as seen
from the Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements
aircraft, during surveys by the U.K.-based Natural
Environment Research Council.

Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas with more than 25 times carbon dioxide’s ability to trap heat in the atmosphere over a 100-year period. It issues from many natural sources, such as microbes in the digestive tracts of cows and soggy wetlands, as well as man-made sources, such as natural gas wells, coal mines, and human-lit fires.

For thousands of years, levels of methane hovered below 1,000 parts per billion (ppb) in Earth’s atmosphere. When the Industrial Revolution began around 1750, however, atmospheric methane levels started to rise. Although the overall trend has been consistently upward, the rate of increase for methane emissions has accelerated and slowed fitfully since detailed measurement began in the 1980s. By the end of the 20th century methane growth had slowed, and it looked as if the amount in the air had stabilized. Then in 2007, growth began again.

Read the story from Earth and Space News by Emily Underwood - “Rising Methane Emissions Could Derail the Paris Agreement.”