• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
Celebrating our 1,000th edition. The climate news you need
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  FEATURED
EXCLUSIVE: Hydrogen is Up, Pieridae is Out as German Chancellor Preps for Canada Visit August 15, 2022
Historic Climate Bill Passes U.S. House, Goes to Biden for Signature August 15, 2022
BREAKING: U.S. Senate Passes Historic $369B Climate Package August 7, 2022
Researchers Point To ‘Dangerously Unexplored’ Risk of Global Climate Catastrophe August 2, 2022
Koch Network Pressures Manchin, Sinema as Advocates Praise ‘Game Changing’ Climate Deal August 2, 2022
Next
Prev

Biden Urged to Target Methane Reductions for Quick Win on Climate

April 19, 2021
Reading time: 4 minutes

Tim Hurst/flickr

Tim Hurst/flickr

 

With U.S. President Joe Biden’s high-stakes climate leadership summit coming up this Thursday, his administration is under pressure to single out methane for significant reductions, even if it means targeting the oil and gas operations that are a primary source of the climate-busting substance.

U.S. green groups’ argument is the same as it’s been for some time: as a shorter-lived greenhouse gas that is 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide over a 20-year span, methane lends itself to the rapid improvements that are needed to build desperately-needed momentum toward climate stability.

“Increased ambition is not just about commitments to decarbonization over the coming decades, it’s also about immediate action to slow the rate of warming now,” said U.S. Environmental Defense Fund Senior VP Mark Brownstein. “And this is the single biggest thing—the most immediate thing—the United States can do to slow the rate of warming our planet is experiencing right now.”

“It will take a while to slow down the concentration of carbon in the atmosphere, but methane turns the dial down a lot faster and a lot sooner,” agreed EDF Vice President Derek Walker.

“The burden for reducing methane, the primary component of natural gas, would fall largely on the oil industry that is a chief source of it,” Bloomberg Green reports. “Some administration officials are wary of appearing to attack the industry by targeting methane,” and “oil industry officials have encouraged the administration to seek methane reductions across the economy, including from agriculture.” The industry itself is split on the issue, however, with the American Petroleum Institute supporting a new methane mandate while some smaller, independent U.S. fossils oppose it.

“Environmentalists want the administration to commit to a 40% reduction in methane emissions by 2030, relative to 2005 levels, arguing that’s necessary to keep global temperature from rising more than 1.5°C,” Bloomberg writes. “Activists also argue that an explicit methane target could go a long way to restoring U.S. credibility in the eyes of other nations, after former President Donald Trump withdrew from the Paris Agreement and dismantled domestic climate policies.”

Previously, the Obama administration had agreed to a 40 to 45% cut by 2025 in a tripartite deal with Canada and Mexico.

A group of scientists from six countries made a similar case in a statement released Friday by Calabasas, California-based Methane Action. It calls on global leaders to commit to aggressive methane reductions and mitigation, funding for atmospheric methane measurement and reductions, and a global agreement to return methane concentrations to pre-industrial levels.

“Currently, atmospheric methane concentrations are at a record high, about 2.5 times higher than the preindustrial level of ~750 parts per billion, and continue to rise rapidly,” the scientists warn. “A particularly sharp rise in atmospheric methane has been under way since 2007, including the largest annual growth on observational record in 2020 despite the pandemic.” With methane already accounting for 25% of the warming effect driving the climate crisis, methane reductions are “important for avoiding catastrophic climate change, and must be part of any effective strategy for meeting climate goals.”

On Thursday, meanwhile, California and the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced a US$100-million plan, backed by billionaire ex-New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, to launch two satellites that will be able to “pinpoint large emissions of greenhouse gases from individual sources like power plants and oil refineries from space,” Reuters reports. The announcement came roughly four years after then-California governor Jerry Brown vowed his state would “launch its own damn satellites” if then-White House occupant Donald Trump insisted on cutting funds for NASA climate research.

“The partnership between the state, the U.S. space agency, satellite company Planet, and four other institutions will launch its first two satellites in 2023,” Reuters reports. “The coalition is operating under a non-profit organization called Carbon Mapper that is funded by philanthropic groups including Bloomberg’s.” 

The resulting data will be shared publicly, “but companies that own and operate emitting infrastructure can subscribe to get access to the data sooner, allowing them to address leaks quickly,” the news agency adds.

“It will be transformational,” Carbon Mapper CEO Riley Duren told Reuters. “There is significant interest in using this type of technology…to support the leak detection and repair enterprise.”

“This decade represents an all-hands-on-deck moment for humanity to make critical progress in addressing climate change,” he added. “Our mission is to help fill gaps in the emerging global ecosystem of methane and CO2 monitoring systems by delivering data that’s timely, actionable, and accessible for science-based decision-making.”



in Climate & Society, Ending Emissions, Fossil Fuels, Jurisdictions, Methane, Oil & Gas, United States

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

TGEGASENGINEERING/Wikimedia Commons
Energy Politics

EXCLUSIVE: Hydrogen is Up, Pieridae is Out as German Chancellor Preps for Canada Visit

August 15, 2022
748
Steve Jurvetson/flickr
International Security & War

The Other Kind of Climate Change: Even a ‘Limited’ Nuclear War Would Trigger Starvation, Kill Billions

August 15, 2022
2
/Pikist
United States

Historic Climate Bill Passes U.S. House, Goes to Biden for Signature

August 15, 2022
221

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

TGEGASENGINEERING/Wikimedia Commons

EXCLUSIVE: Hydrogen is Up, Pieridae is Out as German Chancellor Preps for Canada Visit

August 15, 2022
748
Brocken Inaglory/wikimedia commons

State-Wide Megastorm Driven by Global Heating Could Drench California for a Month

August 15, 2022
437
/Pikist

Historic Climate Bill Passes U.S. House, Goes to Biden for Signature

August 15, 2022
221
Vinaykumar8687/WikimediaCommons

Solar On Track for ‘Staggering’ 30% Growth This Year

August 15, 2022
157
UK Black Tech/wikimedia commons

U.S. Tech Workers Leaving High-Paying Jobs to Focus on Climate Crisis

August 15, 2022
122
United States Marine Core/Wikimedia Commons

Distributed Energy Gains Ground With Mobile Microgrids, Vehicle-to-Grid Technology

August 15, 2022
114

Recent Posts

Steve Jurvetson/flickr

The Other Kind of Climate Change: Even a ‘Limited’ Nuclear War Would Trigger Starvation, Kill Billions

August 15, 2022
2
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Arctic Warms 4 Times Faster than Global Average, Surpassing Estimates 

August 15, 2022
116
rawpixel

Common Medications Foil Body’s Ability to Cope with Hot Weather

August 15, 2022
92
Max Pixel

Slashing Nitrogen Dioxide Pollution Can Improve Crop Yields, Study Finds

August 15, 2022
50
David Hawgood/Geograph

E-Bikes a ‘Faster and Fairer’ Emissions Solution than Electric Cars

August 15, 2022
103
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region/wikimedia commons

Researchers Study Carbon Loss, Forest Impacts of Northwest Territories ‘Zombie Fires’

August 15, 2022
23
Next Post
Paul Kagame/flickr

U.S., China Agree to Tackle Climate Crisis with ‘Seriousness, Urgency’

The Energy Mix

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}