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Title: Regional trends and drivers of the global methane budget

Journal Article · · Global Change Biology
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15901· OSTI ID:1828097
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  1. Global Carbon Project CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere Aspendale Victoria Australia, Global Carbon Project CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere Canberra ACT Australia
  2. Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement, LSCE‐IPSL (CEA‐CNRS‐UVSQ) Université Paris‐Saclay Gif‐sur‐Yvette France
  3. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Biospheric Science Laboratory Greenbelt Maryland USA
  4. Department of Earth System Science Woods Institute for the Environment, and Precourt Institute for Energy Stanford University Stanford California USA
  5. Department of Geoscience, Environment and Society ‐ BGEOSYS Université Libre de Bruxelles Brussels Belgium
  6. Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement, LSCE‐IPSL (CEA‐CNRS‐UVSQ) Université Paris‐Saclay Gif‐sur‐Yvette France, Department of Geoscience, Environment and Society ‐ BGEOSYS Université Libre de Bruxelles Brussels Belgium, Université Paris‐Saclay INRAE AgroParisTech UMR ECOSYS Thiverval‐Grignon France
  7. Yale School of the Environment Yale University New Haven Connecticut USA
  8. Department of Geography Texas A&,M University College Station Texas USA
  9. Research Institute for Global Change JAMSTEC Yokohama Japan, Center for Environmental Remote Sensing Chiba University Chiba Japan
  10. European Commission Joint Research Centre Ispra Italy
  11. Center for Global Environmental Research National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) Tsukuba Japan
  12. Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science Lund University Lund Sweden, Centre for Environmental and Climate Science Lund University Lund Sweden
  13. Max Planck Institute for Meteorology Hamburg Germany
  14. Research Department European Centre for Medium‐Range Weather Forecasts Reading UK
  15. Climate Research Division Environment and Climate Change Canada Victoria British Columbia Canada
  16. Climate and Environmental Physics Physics Institute and Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research University of Bern Bern Switzerland
  17. Climate and Ecosystem Sciences Division Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Berkeley California USA
  18. Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) Utrecht The Netherlands
  19. International Center for Climate and Global Change Research School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences Auburn University Auburn Alabama USA
  20. Finnish Meteorological Institute Helsinki Finland
  21. Division of Geophysical and Planetary Science California Institute of Technology Pasadena California USA
  22. Department of Geographical Sciences University of Maryland College Park Maryland USA
  23. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana USA
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Abstract The ongoing development of the Global Carbon Project (GCP) global methane (CH 4 ) budget shows a continuation of increasing CH 4 emissions and CH 4 accumulation in the atmosphere during 2000–2017. Here, we decompose the global budget into 19 regions (18 land and 1 oceanic) and five key source sectors to spatially attribute the observed global trends. A comparison of top‐down (TD) (atmospheric and transport model‐based) and bottom‐up (BU) (inventory‐ and process model‐based) CH 4 emission estimates demonstrates robust temporal trends with CH 4 emissions increasing in 16 of the 19 regions. Five regions—China, Southeast Asia, USA, South Asia, and Brazil—account for >40% of the global total emissions (their anthropogenic and natural sources together totaling >270 Tg CH 4  yr −1 in 2008–2017). Two of these regions, China and South Asia, emit predominantly anthropogenic emissions (>75%) and together emit more than 25% of global anthropogenic emissions. China and the Middle East show the largest increases in total emission rates over the 2000 to 2017 period with regional emissions increasing by >20%. In contrast, Europe and Korea and Japan show a steady decline in CH 4 emission rates, with total emissions decreasing by ~10% between 2000 and 2017. Coal mining, waste (predominantly solid waste disposal) and livestock (especially enteric fermentation) are dominant drivers of observed emissions increases while declines appear driven by a combination of waste and fossil emission reductions. As such, together these sectors present the greatest risks of further increasing the atmospheric CH 4 burden and the greatest opportunities for greenhouse gas abatement.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER). Earth and Environmental Systems Science Division; Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation; Environmental Restoration and Conservation Agency of Japan; Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF); European Commission (EC); European Research Council (ERC)
Grant/Contract Number:
DE‐AC02‐05CH11231; AC02-05CH11231; GBMF5439; JPMEERF20182002; JPMEERF20172001; 200020_172476; 776810; CAMS73
OSTI ID:
1828097
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1828098; OSTI ID: 1896468
Journal Information:
Global Change Biology, Journal Name: Global Change Biology Vol. 28 Journal Issue: 1; ISSN 1354-1013
Publisher:
Wiley-BlackwellCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United Kingdom
Language:
English

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Related Subjects

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
anthropogenic emissions
bottom-up
methane emissions
natural emissions
regional
source sectors
top-down