Publié le 7 avril 2020
Methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, is leaking from industry sites at rates equivalent to the annual carbon emissions of France and Germany combined, a new analysis using satellite data shows.
Using imaging data gathered by the European Space Agency's Sentinel-5P monitoring mission, the study shows more than 100 "high-volume emission events" worldwide from gas storage and transmission facilities.
These events alone emitted around 20 million tonnes of methane—the short-term equivalent to releasing 1.8 billion tonnes of carbon pollution.
"The good news is most of these are man-made and can easily be addressed through action by individual companies, governments and regulators," said Antoine Rostand, CEO of Kayrros, an asset observation platform that conducted the analysis.