India has co-chaired along with Canada the Global Methane Initiative leadership meet held virtually.

About Methane

• Methane is a greenhouse gas, which is also a component of natural gas.
• There are various sources of methane including human and natural sources.
• The anthropogenic sources are responsible for 60 per cent of global methane emissions.
• It includes landfills, oil and natural gas systems, agricultural activities, coal mining, wastewater treatment, and certain industrial processes.
• The oil and gas sectors are among the largest contributors to human sources of methane.
• These emissions come primarily from the burning of fossil fuels, decomposition in landfills and the agriculture sector.

Global Methane Initiative (GMI)

• GMI is a voluntary Government and an informal international partnership having members from 45 countries including the United States and Canada.
• The forum has been created to achieve global reduction in anthropogenic methane emission through partnership among developed and developing countries having economies in transition.
• The forum was created in 2004 and India is one of the members since its inception and has taken up Vice-Chairmanship for the first time in the Steering Leadership along with USA.
• National governments are encouraged to join GMI as Partner Countries, while other non-State organizations may join GMI’s extensive Project Network.

Focus areas

The initiative currently focuses on five sectors, which are known sources of anthropogenic methane emissions:

1. Agriculture
2. Coal mining
3. Municipal solid waste
4. Municipal wastewater
5. Oil and gas systems

Why focus on Methane?

• The emission of methane is a big concern as it is a greenhouse gas having 25-28 times harmful effect than carbon dioxide
• According to the UN, 25 % of the warming that the world is experiencing today is because of methane.
• Methane is the second-most abundant greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, after carbon dioxide.
• According to IPCC, methane accounts for about half of the 1.0 degrees Celsius net rise in global average temperature since the pre-industrial era.

Back2Basics: CO2 Equivalents

• Each greenhouse gas (GHG) has a different global warming potential (GWP) and persists for a different length of time in the atmosphere.
• The three main greenhouse gases (along with water vapour) and their 100-year global warming potential (GWP) compared to carbon dioxide are:

1 x – carbon dioxide (CO₂)

25 x – methane (CH₄) – I.e. Releasing 1 kg of CH₄into the atmosphere is about equivalent to releasing 25 kg of CO₂

298 x – nitrous oxide (N₂O)

• Water vapour is not considered to be a cause of man-made global warming because it does not persist in the atmosphere for more than a few days.
• There are other greenhouse gases which have far greater global warming potential (GWP) but are much less prevalent. These are sulphur hexafluoride (SF6), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), and perfluorocarbons (PFCs).
• There are a wide variety of uses for SF6, HFCs, and PFCs but they have been most commonly used as refrigerants and for fire suppression.
• Many of these compounds also have a depleting effect on ozone in the upper atmosphere.

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