More than 1,000 ‘super-emitter’ sites released vast amounts of the potent greenhouse gas methane into the atmosphere in 2022, mostly from oil and gas facilities, new satellite data reveals. The worst single leak spewed pollution at a rate equivalent to 67 million cars. Separate data also identified 55 ‘methane bombs’ – fossil fuel extraction sites where future production could release methane equivalent to 30 years of all US greenhouse gas emissions.
Methane emissions cause 25 per cent of global heating today, and scientists report a ‘scary’ surge since 2007. Researchers say this acceleration may be the biggest threat to keeping global warming below 1.5°C and risks triggering catastrophic climate tipping points. However, tackling leaks from fossil fuel sites is the fastest and cheapest way to slash methane emissions, with an emissions cut of 45 per cent by 2030 potentially preventing 0.3°C of temperature rise.
‘The current rise in methane looks very scary indeed,’ said Professor Euan Nisbet of Royal Holloway, University of London. ‘Removing the super-emitters is a no-brainer to slow the rise – you get a lot of bang for your buck.’ Fatih Birol, head of the International Energy Agency, added: ‘Methane emissions are still far too high, especially as methane cuts are among the cheapest options to limit near-term global warming.’
The super-emitter sites were detected via satellite analysis, with the US, Russia and Turkmenistan responsible for the largest numbers. The biggest event was a leak of 427 tonnes per hour in August 2022 near Turkmenistan’s Caspian coast, equivalent to the hourly national emissions of France. Future methane bombs threaten the entire global carbon budget required to stay below 1.5°C, with more than half of these fields already in production.
‘Methane’s short lifetime means reduction of its emissions is one of the few options we still have to stay below 1.5°C,’ said Dr Lena Höglund-Isaksson of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis. ‘If you exceed that level, even temporarily, you might trigger irreversible effects from climate tipping points.’ Methane traps 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide but fades from the atmosphere in about a decade. Levels are now 2.6 times higher than pre-industrial times, responsible for about a third of the rise in global temperatures over the last century.
‘Methane is the worst thing in the struggle to hold back the climate domino pieces, because it’s pushing them over very quickly,’ said Kjell Kühne of the Leave it in the Ground Initiative. With recent annual emission rises accelerating, scientists stress that curbing methane now presents both a grave threat and a golden opportunity to decisively act on the climate crisis.
