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Essential data, facts and figures from reports, policies, schemes and important documents for UPSC-CSE. Do not forget to solve the MCQ.
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Syllabus-
Prelims: General issues on Environmental Ecology, Biodiversity, and Climate change – that do not require subject specialisation.
Main: GS III Syllabus — Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment.
Relevance: Reports are an important part of UPSC exams. Reports on the environment and climate change can be either asked directly in exams or can be good fodder for main answers. This particular report has come just weeks after energy giants such as Shell, BP, ExxonMobil and others reported record profits last year as the Russia-Ukraine war drove up oil and natural gas prices, Associated Press reported. Beyond the Report know how Carbon dioxide emissions reached a record high in 2022 and How do cows and other animals produce methane?
— According to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) annual Methane Global Tracker report, fossil fuel companies emitted 120 million metric tonnes of methane into the atmosphere in 2022, only slightly below the record highs seen in 2019. It added that these companies have done almost nothing to curb the emissions despite their pledges to find and fix leaking infrastructure.
Alind Chauhan Explains:
— The report said 75 per cent of methane emissions from the energy sector can be reduced with the help of cheap and readily available technology.
— The implementation of such measures would cost less than three per cent of the net income received by the oil and gas industry in 2022, but fossil fuel companies failed to take any substantial action regarding the issue.
— The energy sector accounts for around 40 per cent of the total average methane emissions from human activity, as oil and natural gas companies are known to release methane into the atmosphere when natural gas is flared or vented. The greenhouse gas is also released through leaks from valves and other equipment during the drilling, extraction and transportation process.
— “More than 260 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas (mostly composed of methane) is wasted through flaring and methane leaks globally today,” the report stated. Although it’s impossible to avoid all of this amount, the right policies and implementation can bring 200 bcm of additional gas to markets.
“In the oil and gas sector, emissions can be reduced by over 75 per cent by implementing well-known measures such as leak detection and repair programmes and upgrading leaky equipment,” the report pointed out. It further mentioned that 80 per cent of the available options to curb the release of methane could be implemented by the fossil fuel industry at net zero cost.
— “Based on average natural gas prices from 2017 to 2021, we estimate that around 40 per cent of methane emissions from oil and gas operations could be avoided at no net cost because the outlays for the abatement measures are less than the market value of the additional gas that is captured,” the report explained.
— Ultimately, reducing 75 per cent of the wastage of natural gas could lower global temperature rise by nearly 0.1 degree Celsius by mid-century. This would have the same effect on the soaring global temperatures as immediately stopping greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles such as cars, trucks, buses and two and three-wheeler vehicles across the world. However, fossil fuel companies have done little to tackle the problem.
Birol said, “Unfortunately, it’s not a new issue and emissions remain stubbornly high. Many companies saw hefty profits last year following a turbulent period for international oil and gas markets amid the global energy crisis. Fossil fuel producers need to step up and policymakers need to step in – and both must do so quickly.”
What is methane?
— Methane is a greenhouse gas, which is responsible for 30 per cent of the warming since preindustrial times, second only to carbon dioxide. A report by the United Nations Environment Programme observed that over a 20-year period, methane is 80 times more potent at warming than carbon dioxide.
— There are various sources of methane including human and natural sources. Human sources of methane include landfills, oil and natural gas systems, agricultural activities, coal mining, wastewater treatment, and certain industrial processes, the US Environmental Protection Agency notes.
— The oil and gas sectors are among the largest contributors to human sources of methane. NASA notes that human sources (also referred to as anthropogenic sources) of methane are responsible for 60 per cent of global methane emissions. These emissions come primarily from the burning of fossil fuels, decomposition in landfills and the agriculture sector.
— In India, for instance, in 2019, the Ministry of Coal asked state-run coal miner Coal India Limited (CIL) to produce 2 MMSCB (million metric standard cubic metres) per day of coalbed methane (CBM) gas in the next 2 to 3 years.
— CBM, like shale gas, is extracted from what are known as unconventional gas reservoirs — where gas is extracted directly from the rock that is the source of the gas (shale in case of shale gas and coal in case of CBM).
— The methane is held underground within the coal and is extracted by drilling into the coal seam and removing the groundwater. The resulting drop in pressure causes the methane to be released from the coal.
— In recent years, scientists have repeatedly sounded the alarm regarding the increasing amount of methane in the atmosphere. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said that the atmospheric levels of methane jumped 17 parts per billion in 2021, beating the previous record set in 2020.
— “While carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere for much longer than methane, methane is roughly 25 times more powerful at trapping heat in the atmosphere, and has an important short-term influence on the rate of climate change,” the agency said.
What is the Global Methane Pledge?
— The pledge was first announced by the US and EU, and is essentially an agreement to reduce global methane emissions. One of the central aims of this agreement is to cut down methane emissions by up to 30 per cent from 2020 levels by the year 2030.
— According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, methane accounts for about half of the 1.0 degrees Celsius net rise in global average temperature since the pre-industrial era.
— “Rapidly reducing methane emissions is complementary to action on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, and is regarded as the single most effective strategy to reduce global warming in the near term and keep the goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius within reach,” a joint EU-US press release stated.
What is MARS?
— In keeping with the relatively new focus on cutting methane emissions, the UN has decided to set up a satellite-based monitoring system for tracking it and alerting governments and corporations to respond.
— The Methane Alert and Response System, or MARS, will integrate data from a large number of existing and future satellites that have the ability to detect methane emission events anywhere in the world, and send out notifications to the relevant stakeholders to act on it.
— In the last few years, there has been a lot of emphasis on reducing methane emissions. Methane is the second-most common of the six major greenhouse gases, but is far more dangerous than carbon dioxide in its potential to cause global warming. Accounting for about 17 per cent of the current global greenhouse gas emissions, methane is blamed for having caused at least 25 to 30 per cent of temperature rise since the pre-industrial times.
— However, unlike carbon dioxide, methane is largely a sectoral gas, and there are only a few sources of emission. It is possible, therefore, to cut down on methane emissions without having widespread impact on the economy. Because its global warming potential is about 80 times that of carbon dioxide, a reduction in methane emissions also brings big benefits in a short time.
— “Fortunately, action on methane emissions is one of the most cost effective and impactful actions a country can take,” Marcelo Mena, CEO of Global Methane Hub, said.
— At the Glasgow climate conference, nearly 100 countries had come together in a voluntary pledge — now referred to as the Global Methane Pledge — to cut methane emissions by at least 30 per cent by 2030 from the 2020 levels. More countries have joined in this initiative since then, bringing the total to nearly 130. A 30 per cent reduction in methane emissions by 2030 is expected to result in avoiding 0.2 degree rise in temperature by the year 2050, and is considered absolutely essential in the global efforts to keep the temperature increase below the 1.5 degree Celsius target.
— The MARS initiative is intended to strengthen these efforts. It would feed into the recently formed International Methane Emissions Observatory of the UN Environment Programme. To start with, MARS will track the large point emission sources, mainly in the fossil fuel industry, but with time, would be able to detect emissions from coal, waste, livestock and rice fields as well, a UN statement said.
— US President Joe Biden, had announced, among other things, a proposal to strengthen domestic standards with the aim of reducing methane emissions from the oil and gas sector by 87 per cent from 2005 levels.
What is Global Methane Initiative (GMI)?
According to globalmethane.org:
— “The Global Methane Initiative (GMI) is an international public-private partnership focused on reducing barriers to the recovery and use of methane as a valuable energy source. GMI provides technical support to deploy methane-to-energy projects around the world that enable Partner Countries to launch methane recovery and use projects. GMI focuses on three key sectors: Oil and Gas, Biogas, and Coal Mines.”
What is Harit Dhara?
According to icar.org.in:
— The Harit Dhara developed by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, through the comprehensive research over a decade is an anti-methanogenic feed supplement prepared from the natural phyto-sources. It is found very effective in reducing the enteric methane emission upto 17% to 20% when incorporated in the livestock feed.
— The partial inhibition of the enteric methanogenesis will have the dual advantage of stabilizing the global warming process and enhancing the productivity by re-channelizing the saved biological energy.
(Source: icar.org.in)
How do cows and other animals produce methane?
— Ruminant species are hooved grazing or browsing herbivores that chew cud. Ruminants such as cows, sheep, goats, and buffaloes have a special type of digestive system that allows them to break down and digest food that non-ruminant species would be unable to digest.
— Stomachs of ruminant animals have four compartments, one of which, the rumen, helps them to store partially digested food and let it ferment. This partially digested and fermented food is regurgitated by the animals who chew through it again and finish the digestive process.
— However, as grass and other vegetation ferments in the rumen, it generates methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Ruminant animals such as cows and sheep release this methane mainly through burping.
— Given the very large numbers of cattle and sheep on farms in dairy-producing countries, these emissions add up to a significant volume. It is estimated that the ruminant digestive system is responsible for 27 per cent of all methane emissions from human activity.
How are researchers trying to mitigate methane emissions?
— Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has invested in an Australian climate technology start-up that aims to curtail the methane emissions of cow burps, according to a report in the BBC.
— The start-up, Rumin8, has received funding worth $12 million from Breakthrough Energy Ventures, which Gates created in 2015. Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos, and Chinese entrepreneur and Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma have also backed the Breakthrough fund.
— Rumin8 isn’t the first one to find a dietary solution to curb methane emissions from ruminant species. Scientists have been working on it for quite some time now, as they are looking to make these animals more sustainable and less gassy.
— A 2021 study, published in the journal PLUS ONE, found that adding seaweed to cow feed can reduce methane formation in their guts by more than 80 per cent.
— Apart from this, researchers are also trying to find gene-modifying techniques to curtail methane emissions in these animals. Last year, scientists in New Zealand announced they had started the world’s first genetic programme to address the challenge of climate change by breeding sheep that emit lower amounts of methane.
— New Zealand is also one of the first nations to come up with policy-related solutions to this problem. In October 2022, it proposed taxing the greenhouse gases that farm animals produce from burping and urinating.
(Source: How do cows and sheep contribute to climate change? byAlind Chauhan)
Carbon dioxide emissions reached a record high in 2022
— Communities around the world emitted more carbon dioxide in 2022 than in any other year on records dating to 1900, a result of air travel rebounding from the pandemic and more cities turning to coal as a low-cost source of power. Emissions of the climate-warming gas that were caused by energy production grew 0.9 per cent to reach 36.8 gigatons in 2022, the International Energy Agency reported. (The mass of one gigaton is equivalent to about 10,000 fully loaded aircraft carriers, according to NASA.)
— Carbon dioxide is released when fossil fuels such as oil, coal or natural gas are burned to powers cars, planes, homes and factories. When the gas enters the atmosphere, it traps heat and contributes to the warming of the climate. Extreme weather events intensified last year’s carbon dioxide emissions. Droughts reduced the amount of water available for hydropower, which increased the need to burn fossil fuels, and heat waves drove up demand for electricity.
— Thursday’s report was described as disconcerting by climate scientists, who warn that energy users around the world must cut emissions dramatically to slow the dire consequences of global warming.“Any emissions growth — even 1% — is a failure,” said Rob Jackson, a professor of earth system science at Stanford University and chairman of the Global Carbon Project, an international group. “We can’t afford growth. We can’t afford stasis. It’s cuts or chaos for the planet. Any year with higher coal emissions is a bad year for our health and for the Earth.”
— Carbon dioxide emissions from coal grew 1.6% last year. Many communities, primarily in Asia, switched from natural gas to coal to avoid high natural gas prices that were worsened by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the IEA said. And as global airline traffic increased, carbon dioxide emissions from burning oil grew 2.5%, with about half the surge resulting from the aviation sector. Global emissions have grown in most years since 1900 and have accelerated over time, according to data from IEA. One exception was the pandemic year of 2020, when travel all but came to a standstill.
— Last year’s level of emissions, though a record high, was nevertheless lower than experts had expected. Increased deployment of renewable energy, electric vehicles and heat pumps together helped prevent an additional 550 megatons of carbon dioxide emissions, the IEA said. Strict pandemic measures and weak economic growth in China also curtailed production, helping to limit overall global emissions. And in Europe, the IEA said, electricity generation from wind and solar power exceeded that of gas or nuclear for the first time.
— “Without clean energy, the growth in CO2 emissions would have been nearly three times as high,” Fatih Birol, the IEA’s executive director, said in a statement.“However, we still see emissions growing from fossil fuels, hindering efforts to meet the world’s climate targets. International and national fossil fuel companies are making record revenues and need to take their share of responsibility, in line with their public pledges to meet climate goals.
— “Though emissions continue to grow at worrisome levels, a reversal that would help achieve the climate goals that nations have committed to remains possible, said John Sterman, director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan Sustainability Initiative. Nations must subsidize renewables, improve energy efficiency, electrify industry and transportation, set a high price for carbon emissions, reduce deforestation, plant trees and rid the system of coal, Sterman argued. “This is a massive, massive undertaking to do all these things, but that’s what’s needed,” he said.
(Source: AP)
Point to ponder: Massive methane leaks speed up climate change. How?
MCQ:
Which of the following statements is/are correct about the deposits of ‘methane hydrate’? (2019)
1. Global warming might trigger the release of methane gas from these deposits.
2. Large deposits of ‘methane hydrate’ are found in Arctic Tundra and under the sea floor.
3. Methane in atmosphere oxidizes to carbon dioxide after a decade or two.
Select the correct answer using the code given below.
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 2 and 3 only
(c) 1 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
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