<
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2456488-satellites-spot-methane-leaks-but-super-emitters-dont-fix-them/>
"The world has more ways than ever to spot the invisible methane emissions
responsible for a third of global warming so far. But according to a report
released at the COP29 climate summit, methane “super-emitters” rarely take
action when alerted that they are leaking large amounts of the potent
greenhouse gas.
“We’re not seeing the transparency and the sense of urgency that we require,”
says Manfredi Caltagirone, director of the United Nations Environment
Programme’s International Methane Emissions Observatory, which recently
launched a system that uses satellite data to alert methane emitters about
leaks.
Methane is the second most important greenhouse gas to address, behind carbon
dioxide, and a rising number of countries have promised to slash methane
emissions in order to avoid near-term warming. At last year’s COP28 climate
summit, many of the world’s largest oil and gas companies also pledged to
“eliminate” methane emissions from their operations.
Today, a growing number of satellites are beginning to detect methane leaks
from the biggest sources of such emissions: oil and gas infrastructure, coal
mines, landfill and agriculture. That data is critical to holding emitters to
account, says Mark Brownstein at the Environmental Defense Fund, an
environmental advocacy group that recently launched its own methane-sensing
satellite. “But data by itself doesn’t solve the problem,” he says.
The first year of the UN methane alert system illustrates the yawning gap
between data and action. Over the past year, the programme issued 1225 alerts
to governments and companies when it identified plumes of methane from oil and
gas infrastructure large enough to be detected from space. It now reports that
emitters only took steps to control those leaks 15 times, a response rate of
about 1 per cent."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
