Methane Mitigation Can Prevent More than 2.5 Lakh Deaths Every Year: United Nations

According to a new report released by the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (Climate and Clean Air Coalition) led by the United Nations, the current methane mitigation measures for us may limit global warming to 0.3 ° C by 2045.

Not only this, but methane mitigation will also prevent 255000 premature deaths each year, 775,000 asthma-related hospital visits, 73 billion hours of lost labor from extreme heat, and 26 million tonnes of crop damage worldwide.

This report found that the most powerful lever (lever) is to implement comprehensive measures between oil and gas, agriculture, and waste to slow climate change. Methane mitigation is also one of the current most cost-effective strategies to fight global warming.

Methane is the major component of natural gas, often promoted by the industry as a clean fuel source. But man-made methane emissions are 80 times more powerful than CO2 in warming the climate.

This report suggests that limiting methane will have significant health and agricultural benefits – methane is the precursor to tropospheric ozone and reducing it will reduce ozone air pollution.

A 45% reduction in methane emissions by 2040 could prevent 180,000prematuredeaths and more than half a million asthma-related emergency hospital visits. With this, global crop yields can also increase to 26 million tonnes per year. The report details that readily available solutions can cut methane emissions by 30% by 2030, primarily by fixing methane venting and leaks in the oil and gas sector.

The report is released at a time when new regulations are being debated, allowing methane standards to be applied to gas imports. So far, there is no general framework or limit on methane emissions and no signs of emission reductions.

A heavy surge in atmospheric methane is also correlated with a huge increase in US gas production. US gas is among the world’s most impure and sends its exports to emerging markets, mainly in Europe and Asia.

Some studies have shown that methaneemissionsfrom the gas industry havebeen underestimated by60% in the US, with otherstudiesestimated at 25–40% globally.

There is increasing pressure from regulators and investors to take industry action on methane emissions. On April 29, the US Senate passed a bi-partisan vote to restore Obama-era regulations to control leaks from oil and gas wells. It requires companies to monitor, plug and capture methane from new drilling sites.

Reducing man-made methane emissions is one of the most effective strategies to significantly contribute to global efforts to reduce the rate of rapid warming and limit temperature rise to 1.5 ° C.

Combined available methane measures can reduce man-made methane emissions by 45 percent, or up to 180 million tons per year (Mt / yr) by 2030, with additional measures contributing to priority development goals.

This will help avoid global warming by about 0.3 ° C by the 2040s and complete all long-term climate change mitigation efforts. It will also prevent255,000premature deaths each year, 775,000 asthma-related hospital visits, 73 billion hours of lost labor from extreme heat, and 26 million tonnes of crop damage worldwide.

More than half of global methane emissions are caused by human activities in three areas: fossil fuels (35 percent of emissions by human activities), waste (20 percent) and agriculture (40 percent). In the fossil fuel sector, oil and gas extraction, processing and distribution are responsible for 23 percent, and coal mining is responsible for 12 percent of emissions. In the waste sector, landfills and wastewater are responsible for about 20 percent of global anthropogenic emissions. In the agricultural sector, livestock emissions from manure and enteric fermentation are responsible for about 32 percent and rice farming for 8 percent of global anthropogenic emissions.

Currently available measures can reduce emissions from these core areas by about 180 Mt / yr, or up to 45 percent, by 2030. This is a cost-effective step required to achieve the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) 1.5 ° C target. According to the scenariosanalyzedby the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), global methane emissions should be reduced by 40 to 45 percent by 2030 to limit global warming to 1.5 ° C in this century, carbon dioxide and short-term With a substantial synchronous drop in the amount of all climate forces (climate stressors), including climate pollutants. (Section 4.1)

There are readily available targeted measures that can reduce methane emissions by 30 percent by 2030, about 120 Mt / yr. About half of these technologies are available in the fossil fuel sector, where it is relatively easy to reduce methane at the site of emissions and at production / transmission lines. Targeted solutions available in the waste and agricultural sectors are also available. But currently only targeted solutions alone are not sufficient to achieve mitigation corresponding to 1.5 ° C by 2030. To achieve this, additional measures must be deployed, which can reduce 2030 methane emissions by another 15 percent, to about 60 Mt / yr. (Sections 4.1 and 4.2)

· Nearly 60 percent of the targeted interventions available, around 75 Mt / yr, have lowmitigationcosts of 2, and just over 50 percent of them have negative costs – the measures pay themselves off quickly by saving money (Figure SDM2 ). Low-cost abatement capabilities range from 60–80 percent of oil and gas totals to 55–98 percent of coal and about 30–60 percent in the waste sector. The greatest potential for negative cost abatement is in the oil and gas sub-sector where the methane captured is added to revenue rather than released into the atmosphere. (Section 4.2)

Mitigation capacity in different regions varies between countries and regions. Europe and India have the highest capacity in the waste sector; Coal production in China and then in livestock; From livestock after oil and gas in Africa; In the Asia-Pacific region, except China and India, it is in coal and waste; In the Middle East, North America and Russia / the former Soviet Union it is from oil and gas; And in Latin America it belongs to the livestock subgroup. The majority of these major abatement capacity can be obtained at a low cost, less than US $ 600 per tonne, particularly in the waste sector and for the coal sub-region in most territories and the oil and gas sub-sector in North America . (Section 4)

All measures are expected to increase mitigation capacity between 2030 and 2050, particularly in the fossil fuel and waste sectors.

The level of methane mitigation required to limit warming to 1.5 ° C will not be achieved by extensivedecarbonizationstrategies alone. Structural changes that support change in a zero-carbon society found in broader strategies will only achieve about 30 percent of the required methane reductions over the next 30 years. Focused strategies that specifically target methane need to be implemented to achieve adequate methane mitigation. At the same time, the expansion and use of natural gas infrastructure is inconsistent with the goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees centigrade without relying on the deployment of largely unproven carbon removal technologies in the future.