Methane: A Neglected Greenhouse Gas

Artikel

Methane is a greenhouse gas that gets far less public attention than carbon dioxide. This is entirely unwarranted. Being 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide in trapping heat in the atmosphere, methane accounts for about one-sixth of all anthropogenic (i.e. human-induced) greenhouse gas emissions. Methane is also overlooked when it comes to taking concrete measures for climate protection, despite the fact that reducing methane emissions is potentially cheap. Major sources of methane emissions are livestock farming, the natural gas sector, landfills, wetland rice cultivation and coal mining. In many cases, it is possible to mitigate substantial amounts of methane in a cost-effective way. Moreover, captured methane can be used for generating heat and power. In other words, abating one ton of methane emissions is sometimes cheaper than abating an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide. The challenge is to effectively incorporate cutbacks of methane gas emissions into climate policy strategies.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Journal: Weekly Report ; ISSN: 1860-3343 ; Volume: 5 ; Year: 2009 ; Issue: 32 ; Pages: 218-223 ; Berlin: Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW)

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Pollution Control Adoption and Costs; Distributional Effects; Employment Effects ; Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling ; Climate; Natural Disasters and Their Management; Global Warming
• Subject: Methane ; Mitigation ; Climate policy

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Kemfert, Claudia ; Schill, Wolf-Peter
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW)
• (where): Berlin
• (when): 2009

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/151071
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET