Mapping, Measuring, and Managing Methane: The Critical Role of a Potent Climate Pollutant

Earth’s temperature is rising to dangerous levels. Cutting greenhouse gas emissions is increasingly urgent. Although carbon dioxide is the major climate pollutant, from the moment it is emitted, a ton of methane is at least 120 times more potent than a ton of carbon dioxide. While methane may not last long in the atmosphere, new research suggests that its potential to warm the planet may be 25 percent greater than previously believed.

Methane’s rapid multiplier effect accelerates global warming. To avoid an emissions overshoot that destabilizes the climate past 1.5 degrees Celsius, policymakers, industry, and civil society should focus their attention on short-lived climate pollutants, like methane.

Methane is a stealthy gas—invisible, odorless, minute, and forceful. Monitoring methane to chart its release into the atmosphere is an ongoing challenge. Measurement systems are continually improving to detect and quantify methane using multi-pronged approaches that entail top-down satellite monitoring systems, bottom-up recording, basin-level measurements, regional assessments, and oil and gas system emissions models. Taken together, these methods can create a comprehensive view of methane from its various sources.

The petroleum industry is a principal source of methane emissions, as methane is the main component of natural gas. Methane can escape through different routes in the petroleum value chain, wherever oil and gas are extracted, processed, shipped, stored, or combusted. Preventing the leakage of methane can be profitable for petroleum companies who sell non-leaked gas. In fact, an estimated one-half of methane currently escaping from natural gas systems could return a profit, even after considering costs of installing leak prevention measures.

In today’s market, crude oil is much more valuable than natural gas. This creates a perverse incentive to maximize oil production over gas. Overcoming these economic barriers will require direct government action, in addition to voluntary industry efforts, to prevent leakage of unwanted methane throughout the petroleum supply chain. Increased transparency and data collection, improved oversight through monitoring, reporting, and verification, regulations and binding agreements, research and development (R&D) and technology transfer, and financial incentives and penalties each has a role to play. In order to offer durable climate solutions, efforts to mitigate methane must be designed to withstand future political pressures.