Satellites spot methane leaks – however ‘super-emitters’ don’t repair them

The world has extra methods than ever to identify the invisible methane emissions accountable for a 3rd of worldwide warming to this point. However in response to a report launched on the COP29 local weather summit, methane “super-emitters” hardly ever take motion when alerted that they’re leaking massive quantities of the potent greenhouse fuel.

“We’re not seeing the transparency and the sense of urgency that we require,” says Manfredi Caltagirone, director of the United Nations Atmosphere Programme’s Worldwide Methane Emissions Observatory, which not too long ago launched a system that makes use of satellite tv for pc information to alert methane emitters about leaks.

Methane is the second most vital greenhouse fuel to handle, behind carbon dioxide, and a rising variety of nations have promised to slash methane emissions with the intention to keep away from near-term warming. Eventually yr’s COP28 local weather summit, lots of the world’s largest oil and fuel corporations additionally pledged to “remove” methane emissions from their operations.

In the present day, a rising variety of satellites are starting to detect methane leaks from the largest sources of such emissions: oil and fuel infrastructure, coal mines, landfill and agriculture. That information is vital to holding emitters to account, says Mark Brownstein on the Environmental Protection Fund, an environmental advocacy group that not too long ago launched its personal methane-sensing satellite tv for pc. “However information by itself doesn’t resolve the issue,” he says.

The primary yr of the UN methane alert system illustrates the yawning hole between information and motion. Over the previous yr, the programme issued 1225 alerts to governments and corporations when it recognized plumes of methane from oil and fuel infrastructure massive sufficient to be detected from area. It now reviews that emitters solely took steps to manage these leaks 15 instances, a response price of about 1 per cent.

There are a selection of attainable causes for this, says Caltagirone. Emitters would possibly lack technical or monetary assets and a few sources of methane will be tough to chop off, though emissions from oil and fuel infrastructure are broadly seen to be the simplest to cope with. “It’s plumbing. It’s not rocket science,” he says.

One other rationalization could be that emitters are nonetheless getting used to the brand new alert system. Nevertheless, different methane displays have reported the same lack of response. “Our success price isn’t a lot better,” says Jean-Francois Gauthier at GHGSat, a Canadian firm that has issued comparable satellite tv for pc alerts for years. “It’s on the order of two or 3 per cent.”

There have been some successes. As an example, the UN issued a number of alerts this yr to the Algerian authorities a few methane supply that had been repeatedly leaking since at the very least 1999, with a world warming impact equal to half 1,000,000 automobiles pushed for a yr. By October, satellite tv for pc information confirmed it had disappeared.

However the general image suggests monitoring isn’t but translating into emission reductions. “Merely exhibiting methane plumes isn’t sufficient to generate motion,” says Rob Jackson at Stanford College in California. A core downside he sees is that satellites hardly ever reveal who owns the leaky pipeline or the methane-emitting properly, making accountability tough.

Methane is a significant matter of dialogue on the COP29 assembly, now below approach in Baku, Azerbaijan. A summit this week on “non-CO2 greenhouse gases”, convened by the US and China, noticed nations announce a number of actions on methane emissions. They embrace a price on methane within the US, which is aimed toward oil and fuel emitters – though many anticipate the incoming Trump administration to undo that rule.