![\"\"](\"https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/15112402\/SEI_229688903.jpg\")
<\/div>A methane plume at least 4.8 kilometres long billows into the atmosphere south of Tehran, Iran<\/p>\n
NASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n
The world has more ways than ever to spot the invisible methane emissions responsible for a third of global warming so far. But according to a report released at the COP29 climate summit, methane \u201csuper-emitters\u201d rarely take action when alerted that they are leaking large amounts of the potent greenhouse gas.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not seeing the transparency and the sense of urgency that we require,\u201d says Manfredi Caltagirone<\/a>, director of the United Nations Environment Programme\u2019s International Methane Emissions Observatory, which recently launched a system that uses satellite data to alert methane emitters about leaks.<\/p>\n Methane is the second most important greenhouse gas to address, behind carbon dioxide, and a rising number of countries<\/a> have promised to slash methane emissions in order to avoid near-term warming. At last year\u2019s COP28 climate summit<\/a>, many of the world\u2019s largest oil and gas companies also pledged to \u201celiminate\u201d methane emissions from their operations.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Today, a growing number of satellites are beginning to detect methane leaks from the biggest sources of such emissions<\/a>: oil and gas infrastructure, coal mines, landfill and agriculture. That data is critical to holding emitters to account, says Mark Brownstein<\/a> at the Environmental Defense Fund, an environmental advocacy group that recently launched its own methane-sensing satellite<\/a>. \u201cBut data by itself doesn\u2019t solve the problem,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n The first year of the UN methane alert system illustrates the yawning gap between data and action. Over the past year, the programme issued 1225 alerts<\/a> to governments and companies when it identified plumes of methane from oil and gas infrastructure large enough to be detected from space. It now reports that emitters only took steps to control those leaks 15 times, a response rate of about 1 per cent.<\/p>\n There are a number of possible reasons for this, says Caltagirone. Emitters might lack technical or financial resources and some sources of methane can be difficult to cut off, although emissions from oil and gas infrastructure are widely seen to be the easiest to deal with. \u201cIt\u2019s plumbing. It\u2019s not rocket science,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Another explanation might be that emitters are still getting used to the new alert system. However, other methane monitors have reported a similar lack of response. \u201cOur success rate is not much better,\u201d says Jean-Francois Gauthier<\/a> at GHGSat, a Canadian company that has issued similar satellite alerts for years. \u201cIt\u2019s on the order of 2 or 3 per cent.\u201d<\/p>\n Methane super-emitter plumes detected in 2021<\/p>\n ESA\/SRON<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n There have been some successes. For instance, the UN issued several alerts this year to the Algerian government about a methane source that had been continuously leaking since at least 1999, with a global warming effect equivalent to half a million cars driven for a year. By October, satellite data showed it had disappeared.<\/p>\n But the overall picture suggests monitoring isn\u2019t yet translating into emission reductions. \u201cSimply showing methane plumes is not enough to generate action,\u201d says Rob Jackson<\/a> at Stanford University in California. A core problem he sees is that satellites rarely reveal who owns the leaky pipeline or the methane-emitting well, making accountability difficult.<\/p>\n Methane is a major topic of discussion at the COP29 meeting, now under way in Baku, Azerbaijan. A summit <\/a>this week on \u201cnon-CO2 greenhouse gases<\/a>\u201d, convened by the US and China, saw countries announce several actions on methane emissions. They include a fee on methane in the US, which is aimed at oil and gas emitters \u2013 although many expect the incoming Trump administration to undo that rule.<\/p>\n Topics:<\/p>\n<\/section><\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/15113312\/SEI_229689310.jpg\")
<\/div>