The launch today of the Open Methane tool reveals coal and gas mining likely out-pollutes agriculture in the release of the dangerous methane emissions that are fuelling global warming.
Previous reports have shown that Australia’s coal mining industry is under-estimating the volume of methane pollution it creates. Methane’s intense and short-lived climate effect means it has been responsible for about a third of the global warming suffered so far and reducing it is crucial to preventing catastrophic levels of further warming.
The scientists behind the Open Methane tool now estimate that it is coal mining, not agriculture, that is the largest source of anthropogenic methane emissions in Australia and that emissions from underground and open cut coal mines have been dramatically underestimated.
Lock the Gate National Coordinator Ellen Roberts said, “The implications of this satellite methane data for the Australian government are stark: Australia has perilously higher methane emissions than we thought, is at risk of burning up its emissions goals and must take action to prevent the coal mining industry from driving dangerous levels of global warming for which all Australians will pay the price.
“The agricultural and land sectors that have provided most of Australia’s emissions abatement in the last twenty years will bear the brunt of climate change damage and are still expected even now to deliver carbon offsets to expanding coal mines emitting god knows how much dangerous methane. This is a recipe for disaster.
“There is no time to continue business as usual while these wild data anomalies are fixed: if it is to have any credibility on climate change, the government must halt any further expansion of coal mining and insist that existing mines take immediate action to reduce methane pollution.”
ENDS