Methane Budget
- Methane is emitted from a range of anthropogenic sources like landfills, agriculture, and fossil fuels, as well as natural systems like wetlands.
- It is the second most important greenhouse gas that humans are contributing to.
- Since pre-industrial times, increases in atmospheric methane have contributed to a quarter of the climate-warming effect from greenhouse gases.
- But unlike carbon dioxide, methane has a shorter lifetime in the atmosphere.
- If big changes are brought in our emissions, methane can be removed relatively quickly.
- Recently international team of scientists has published an update on the global methane budget as part of the Global Carbon Project.
- They estimated annual global methane emissions at nearly 570 million tons for the 2008 to 2017 decade which is 5% higher than emissions recorded in the early 2000s.
- It estimated that wetlands made up for the largest natural source of methane and other sources like agriculture, waste and fossil fuels contributed to 60%.
- Wetlands are estimated to make up 20% to 30% of the global methane budget, but emissions vary by latitude.
- The fluxes are larger in the tropics than in the high latitudes and temperate zones.
