At COP26 the U.S. and the EU led a global pledge to slash methane emission by 30% by 2030. Methane makes up at least one-quarter of all greenhouse gases, and is more than 80 times more damaging than CO2 over a 20-year period. Success in cutting these emissions would be a major step towards meeting our 1.5°C goals. But far from declining, 2020 saw methane emissions grow at the fastest rate in 40 years. The increased use of natural gas (mostly made … [Read more...]
Satellite monitoring of Methane leaks makes policing them more effective
Satellites, drones, and airplanes should be used to detect methane leaks across the million active wells and hundreds of thousands of miles of pipelines across the U.S. That’s because without proper monitoring it’s extremely hard to find leaks, let alone regulate them. Meredith Fowlie at UC Berkeley’s Energy Institute at Haas describes their paper that uses such data to, first, show that 2.3% of upstream natural gas production is leaking. That’s … [Read more...]
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