Methane mitigation: Learning from the natural marine environment

Records of methane emissions and mitigation solutions

During the past decades, public attention regarding global warming has mainly focused on CO2 reduction; however, CH4, another important greenhouse gas, has a global warming potential that is 84 times higher than that of CO2 on 20-year basis. The annual atmospheric amount of CH4 in 2020 reached its highest level since systematic monitoring began in 1983 (Figure 1A). To date, despite Covid-19 shutdowns, methane has contributed approximately 30% to global warming. Recently, a series of timely appeals, such as "The Global Methane Pledge" signed at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) and the “Global Methane Assessment” from the United Nations Environment Program, have called on global methane reduction and mitigation.