Why Methane Is Now Climate’s Most Urgent Opportunity: QuickTake

Methane is the second-largest contributor to global warming after carbon dioxide. New approaches to curb methane emissions, including using high-resolution satellites to spot leaks of the invisible gas, represents one of the biggest opportunities to avert catastrophic climate change. Actions by governments to contain the gas are accelerating and more than 150 nations have signed a pledge to collectively reduce global methane emissions 30% below 2020 levels by 2030. There are also notable efforts underway in the US, the European Union, China and Turkmenistan to slash releases of the gas.

Methane is an invisible and odorless gas that, like carbon dioxide, traps solar energy as it’s radiated back toward space from the Earth’s surface. Unlike carbon dioxide, which can contribute to heating for centuries or longer, the impact of methane, whose chemical name is CH4, is felt primarily in the first 20 years after its release. During this period its potency can be more than 80 times that of CO2.