Methane emissions reach record levels

Abstract

Methane emissions reached a record 596 million metric tons in 2017, the most recent year for which full data are available. Without swift and effective regulations to mitigate emissions of this greenhouse gas—which is shorter-lived in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide but has a stronger warming effect—scientists from the Global Carbon Project warn that the world is on a trajectory that matches the most aggressive predictions for global warming. About two-thirds of the increase in anthropogenic methane emissions since 2009 have come primarily from agriculture—particularly red meat and dairy production, and to a lesser extent rice farming (Earth Syst. Sci. Data 2020, DOI: 10.5194/essd-12-1-2020 and Environ. Res. Lett. 2020, DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/ab9ed2). Emissions from fossil fuel production and consumption account for about one-third of the increase. Governments have focused on mitigating carbon dioxide emissions, and rightly so, says Robert Jackson, an atmospheric chemist at Stanford University. Jackson and Marielle Saunois, an