Why in News
It’s in the news of late because of its character as a potent climate pollutant.
While climate talks have by and large focused on carbon and carbon dioxide emissions.
There is increasing acknowledgement among the world’s leaders as well as philanthropists of methane’s effects on global warming.
Methane emission
Methane is an organic compound.
Its molecule consists of carbon and four hydrogen atoms (CH4).
At the ongoing COP-28, a group of well-endowed philanthropic bodies, including the Sequoia Climate Foundation and the Bezos Earth Fund, announced that they would collectively invest $450 million in solutions to tackle methane emissions.
Methane has a greater global warming potential (GWP) than carbon dioxide.
The GWP is a measure of the warming caused by a substance relative to that due to the same mass of carbon dioxide.
The GWP100 measures this over a century at a time.
If carbon dioxide has a GWP100 of 1, methane is 28, nitrous oxide is 265, and sulphur hexafluoride is 23,500.
That is, it’s a short-lived climate pollutant.
Its sources include cattle-farming, landfills, wastewater treatment facilities, rice cultivation, and some industrial processes.
COMMENTS