Abstract
Anthropogenic methane emissions from China are likely greater than in any other country in the world. The largest fraction of China’s anthropogenic emissions is attributable to coal mining, but these emissions may be changing; China enacted a suite of regulations for coal mine methane (CMM) drainage and utilization that came into full effect in 2010. Here, we use methane observations from the GOSAT satellite to evaluate recent trends in total anthropogenic and natural emissions from Asia with a particular focus on China. We find that emissions from China rose by 1.1 ± 0.4 Tg CH4 yr−1 from 2010 to 2015, culminating in total anthropogenic and natural emissions of 61.5 ± 2.7 Tg CH4 in 2015. The observed trend is consistent with pre-2010 trends and is largely attributable to coal mining. These results indicate that China’s CMM regulations have had no discernible impact on the continued increase in Chinese methane emissions.
Highlights
Anthropogenic methane emissions from China are likely greater than in any other country in the world
We find that emissions from China rose by 1.1 ± 0.4 Tg CH4 yr−1 from 2010 to 2015, culminating in total anthropogenic and natural emissions of 61.5 ± 2.7 Tg CH4 in 2015
CH4 accumulates in coal seams during the process of coalification —when organic material is slowly converted into coal over geological time scales[5]; the majority of coal-related CH4 emissions occur when the coal is mined and this trapped CH4 gas is released to the atmosphere
Summary
Anthropogenic methane emissions from China are likely greater than in any other country in the world. We use methane observations from the GOSAT satellite to evaluate recent trends in total anthropogenic and natural emissions from Asia with a particular focus on China. This trend in sub-tropical Asia and tropical Africa is consistent with existing studies that show tropical regions have been driving these recent global CH4 increases
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