New satellite will track elusive methane pollution from oil and gas industry globally | 24CA News
A privately funded satellite tv for pc is ready to push methane monitoring into a brand new period, as soon as it launches into house on Monday.
A collaborative mission between Environmental Defense Fund, Google, the Government of New Zealand and several other different companions, MethaneSAT will monitor methane emissions across the globe in makes an attempt to establish and quantify sources spewing the climate-heating greenhouse gasoline.
For 20 years after its launch into the environment, methane gasoline is 80 instances extra dangerous than carbon dioxide in its potential to extend world temperatures. But at present, the dimensions of methane air pollution is unclear.
“We don’t have a really granular picture on the true amount of methane that’s being emitted from individual sectors and sources and exactly where those emissions are coming from,” mentioned Katlyn MacKay, a Canadian scientist with the Environmental Defense Fund.
“MethaneSAT fills a critical data gap that current missions aren’t capable of.”
‘Game-changing’ expertise
MethaneSAT’s mission is targeted on methane from oil and gasoline manufacturing and consumption, which is the largest supply of the polluting gasoline, after agriculture.
The undertaking staff estimates the satellite tv for pc will be capable of quantify whole regional emissions, globally, and seize and attribute information on particular person oil and gasoline area emission for 80 per cent of worldwide manufacturing websites. This builds on present methane-tracking expertise that has but to supply a full image of the dimensions and exact origin factors of the heat-trapping gasoline.
Experts world wide are watching this mission intently, together with Jonathan Banks, the Clean Air Task Force’s world director of methane air pollution prevention. He says MethaneSAT fills a major want, as present reporting is “wildly underestimating the amount of emissions.”
“What the satellites like MethaneSAT are going to do is give us a better ability to start to capture those discrepancies,” mentioned Banks. “It will be a game changer for all of us that are working on this.”
Promises to scale back, however how a lot is there?
Many policy-makers are watching, too, as methane laws provide tangible options for slowing local weather change.
“It’s one of the lowest-cost opportunities,” mentioned Tomás de Oliveira Bredariol, an power coverage analyst from the International Energy Agency. “Methane emissions can be reduced by 75 per cent in the fossil fuel sector, and delivering that could reduce global warming by 2050 by about 0.1°C.”
He says that is extra vital than it appears, and could be the equal to shifting all of right now’s automobiles, vans, trains and ships to net-zero CO2 emissions.
Canada a pacesetter
Methane reductions are more and more on the forefront of worldwide local weather coverage discussions.
Since 2021, 155 international locations have signed on to a world pledge to scale back methane emissions by 30 per cent by 2030. The Government of Canada has introduced a few of the most stringent laws, with ambitions to chop methane leaked and emitted by oil and gasoline manufacturing by as much as 75 per cent, from 2012 ranges, by 2030.
The Government of Canada unveiled its plan to scale back methane gasoline emissions from the oil and gasoline sector on the COP28 local weather change summit. Methane is a considerably stronger greenhouse gasoline and contributor to world warming than carbon dioxide.
But whereas guarantees have been made, there is a evident situation, in keeping with specialists — there was no clear sense of how a lot methane is at present being launched into the environment. That’s the place MethaneSAT could possibly be historic.
“It will be very important that all these pledges are backed up by robust monitoring, reporting and verification,” mentioned de Oliveira Bredariol. “Otherwise, it will be very hard to say, you know, we have achieved our goals, or not.”
Integrating personal sector information
MacKay says her staff hopes the MethaneSAT mission will present governments and trade with new instruments for transparency, monitoring and accountability.
Legacy businesses just like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in addition to governments, are grappling with monitor and make the most of information from privately funded missions.
“NOAA Is all about continuity,” mentioned Jeff Privette, chief of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Science Division. “Using satellites and instruments and products from algorithms that we didn’t provide requirements for or design […] Can we do that and still be authoritative?”
“In the old days, we wouldn’t even consider it. But we’ve changed, and we have a very new paradigm,” he mentioned. “We have this huge, urgent international need — the climate crisis and trying to understand greenhouse gasses.”
In February, the National Physical Laboratory even hosted a workshop within the U.Ok. to debate set up internationally acknowledged requirements for satellite-derived methane information.
In Canada, the federal government is contemplating if and leverage the info MethaneSAT will present.
“[Environment and Climate Change Canada] scientists and technical experts are evaluating the potential use of this new satellite information,” the federal division wrote in an announcement to 24CA News. “As these new satellites continue to come online, ECCC will identify potential applications for the data based on evaluations of data quality and plume detection capabilities. At present, there are no current plans to leverage this technology for regulatory enforcement purposes.”
Tackling methane encourages hope
Banks, who has labored on methane coverage for 20 years, says he is relieved to see the dialog and expertise round methane rising as a key piece of the local weather change dialog.
“If we reduce methane today, we see an impact on temperature in our lifetimes,” he mentioned.
“There’s an atmospheric aspect that’s really important, but there’s also a psychological impact that is almost as important,” he mentioned. “Methane provides that thing that allows us to bend the curve on climate and gives people that hope that, yes, we can solve this.”
MethaneSAT will begin to feed free, public information into Google Earth Engine as soon as calibrated and examined in orbit. The Environmental Defense Fund estimates that might be later this 12 months.
