Abstract
Abstract. Atmospheric methane (CH4) is a potent greenhouse gas that is strongly influenced by several human activities. China, as one of the major agricultural and energy production countries, contributes considerably to the global anthropogenic CH4 emissions by rice cultivation, ruminant feeding, and coal production. Understanding the characteristics of China's CH4 emissions is necessary for interpreting source contributions and for further climate change mitigation. However, the scarcity of data from some sources or years and spatially explicit information pose great challenges to completing an analysis of CH4 emissions. This study provides a comprehensive comparison of China's anthropogenic CH4 emissions by synthesizing the most current and publicly available datasets (13 inventories). The results show that anthropogenic CH4 emissions differ widely among inventories, with values ranging from 44.4–57.5 Tg CH4 yr−1 in 2010. The discrepancy primarily resulted from the energy sector (27.3 %–60.0 % of total emissions), followed by the agricultural (26.9 %–50.8 %) and waste treatment (8.1 %–21.2 %) sectors. Temporally, emissions among inventories stabilized in the 1990s but increased significantly thereafter, with annual average growth rates (AAGRs) of 2.6 %–4.0 % during 2000–2010 but slower AAGRs of 0.5 %–2.2 % during 2011–2015, and the emissions became relatively stable, with AAGRs of 0.3 %–0.8 %, during 2015–2019 because of the stable emissions from the energy sector (mainly coal production). Spatially, there are large differences in emissions hotspot identification among inventories, and incomplete information on emission patterns may mislead or bias mitigation efforts for CH4 emission reductions. The availability of detailed activity data for sectors or subsectors and the use of region-specific emission factors play important roles in understanding source contributions and reducing the uncertainty in bottom-up inventories. Data used in this article are available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.12720989 (Lin et al., 2021).
Highlights
Atmospheric methane (CH4) is a potent greenhouse gas with a warming potential that is 28-fold higher than that of CO2 over a 100-year time horizon (Myhre et al, 2013)
The anthropogenic CH4 emissions from China differ widely among inventories, and emissions estimates are in the ranges of 28.5–46.3 and 44.4–57.6 Tg CH4 yr−1 for 1990 and 2010, respectively, but are still broadly within the minimum– maximum range of the global methane budget (GMB) for 2000–2009 and 2003– 2012 (Fig. 1)
The growth of CH4 emissions is profoundly affected by changes in emissions from the energy sector, with average growth rates (AAGRs) of 5.8 %–9.0 %
Summary
Atmospheric methane (CH4) is a potent greenhouse gas with a warming potential that is 28-fold higher than that of CO2 over a 100-year time horizon (Myhre et al, 2013). The global CH4 budget is strongly influenced by several human activities, including food production (ruminant and rice), waste (sewage and landfills), and fossil fuel production and use (coal, oil, and gas) (Bruhwiler et al, 2014; Menon et al, 2007). According to the latest report from a global methane project, emissions from agriculture contributed the most (44 %) to global anthropogenic sources, followed by fossil fuel (35 %) and waste (12 %) (Saunois et al, 2020). Control of anthropogenic CH4 emissions has become a promising target in the effort to mitigate climate change at short timescales (Höglund-Isaksson, 2012; Henne et al, 2016; Saunois et al, 2016). Understanding the levels and trends of anthropogenic CH4 emissions and their drivers is extremely crucial for global climate change research and mitigation
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