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Reducing methane emissions from fossil fuel exploitation is a crucial target for climate policy. However, the current national emission inventories submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) are highly uncertain. To address this issue, researchers utilized satellite observations from the TROPOMI instrument to better quantify national emissions worldwide. The study covered a 22-month period from May 2018 to February 2020 and achieved a resolution of up to 50 km.

The results showed that global emissions from oil and gas were estimated at 62.7 ± 11.5 Tg a−1, while coal emissions were estimated at 32.7 ± 5.2 Tg a−1. These findings indicate that oil and gas emissions are 30% higher than what is reported by the UNFCCC, primarily due to under-reporting by major emitters such as the US, Russia, Venezuela, and Turkmenistan.

Interestingly, eight countries were found to have methane emission intensities from the oil and gas sector exceeding 5% of their gas production. Venezuela, Iraq, and Angola had intensities as high as 20%. Lowering these intensities to the global average level of 2.4% could potentially reduce global oil and gas emissions by 11 Tg a−1 or 18%.

Methane is the second most significant anthropogenic greenhouse gas after CO2 and has contributed to 0.6°C of global warming since preindustrial times. Therefore, mitigating methane emissions from fossil fuel exploitation is vital in achieving climate goals. National inventories based on bottom-up approaches, which apply emission factors to activity data, suffer from high uncertainties. This hinders the setting and tracking of mitigation goals for methane emissions.

To improve these inventories, top-down approaches, which use inverse methods to infer emissions from atmospheric measurements, have been employed. In this study, the TROPOMI satellite provided high-resolution data with global coverage, enabling more accurate quantification of emissions from fossil fuel exploitation. The approach involved comparing the TROPOMI observations with bottom-up inventories to validate the results and improve inventory estimates for all countries.

Overall, this research highlights the importance of accurately quantifying methane emissions from fossil fuel exploitation. The findings reveal the extent of under-reporting and identify countries with high emission intensities. By addressing these issues and implementing necessary reductions, significant progress can be made in mitigating methane emissions and combating climate change.

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