One of the most potent greenhouse gases is rising faster than ever. he world to maintain a safe climate, scientists say. Washington Post Sarah KaplanSeptember 10, 2024 Emissions of methane — a powerful greenhouse gas — are rising at the fastest rate in recorded history, scientists said Tuesday, defying global pledges to limit the gas and putting the Earth on a path toward perilous temperature rise. New research from the Global Heating on cold days is a widespread requirement for rental homes in much of Canada and the US. Air conditioning, not so much. But as extreme heat becomes a growing health threat, pressure is building for a change. The report also uncovered worrying evidence that human disruptions have boosted the amount of methane released by lakes, marshes and other ecosystems. Since 2021, more than 150 countries have pledged to slash emissions of the gas by 30 percent by the end of this decade. But in a second, peer-reviewed study published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, Global Carbon Project researchers found little evidence that the world is making good on those promises.
Carbon Project — an international coalition of scientists that seeks to quantify planet-warming emissions — finds that methane levels in the atmosphere are tracking those projected by the worst-case climate scenarios. Because methane traps about 30 times more heat than carbon dioxide over a 100-year time frame, the accelerating emissions will make it nearly impossible for the world to meet its climate goals, the authors warned.“These extra methane emissions bring the temperature thresholds ever closer,” said Rob Jackson, a Stanford University climate scientist and chair of the Global Carbon Project. “Warming that was once inconceivable is now perhaps likely.” The project’s “Global Methane Budget” report, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, finds that human-caused methane emissions grew as much as 20 percent between 2000 and 2020 and now account for at least a third of total annual releases. The largest growth came from expanding landfills, booming livestock production, increased coal mining and surging consumption of natural gas. The report also uncovered worrying evidence that human disruptions have boosted the amount of methane released by lakes, marshes and other ecosystems.
Since 2021, more than 150 countries have pledged to slash emissions of the gas by 30 percent by the end of this decade. But in a second, peer-reviewed study published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, Global Carbon Project researchers found little evidence that the world is making good on those promises.Satellite measurements from more recent years revealed methane emissions grew an additional 5 percent between 2020 and 2023, with the biggest increases in China, southern Asia and the Middle East. Among major emitters, the study revealed, only theEuropean Unionhas meaningfully curbed methane emissions in the last two decades. Together, the two reports depict a world that has fallen critically short on controlling one of the most important contributors to climate change. Methane is responsible for about a third of the roughly 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.2 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming that has occurred since the late 1800s, according to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. And because the gas doesn’t linger in the atmosphere as long as carbon dioxide, it is considered a prime target for averting near-term temperature rise. “It’s the only greenhouse gas where we can reduce climate change in the next decade or two through emissions reductions,” Jackson said.....read on https://www.washingtonpost.