COLLINSVILLE, Queensland (CU)_As the international community accelerates its efforts to slash global greenhouse gas emissions to tackle the ongoing climate crisis, one of their biggest challenges is to phase out emissions of methane, a toxic gas with an 80 times potent in warming the earth than carbon dioxide. Last week, more than 100 counties pledged to slash their methane emissions 30 per cent from 2020 levels by the end of this decade. However, some of the top methane emitters in the world, including Australia were missing from this “game-changing commitment”.
The Trans-Tasman nation’s decision to opt out of the deal was considered rather disappointing, at a time when the country is facing growing global criticism for its insufficient efforts to slash emissions. According to Australia’s Minister for Industry, Energy and Emissions Reduction Angus Taylor, the only way to achieve the 30 per cent target by 2030 is to reduce numbers of cattle and sheep, since almost half of the country’s annual methane emissions come from the agriculture sector.
However, it would be erroneous to disregard the contributions of Australia’s mining industry towards global methane emissions, particularly following recent discovery which revealed that the most severe cloud of methane detected in the country in more than a year was spotted over one of the nation’s top coal producing regions.
According to Kayrros SAS, which analysed the observations from Sentinel-5P satellite belonging to the European Space Agency, the plume detected over the Bowen Basin in Queensland, was emitting about 76 tonnes of methane an hour. The geoanalytics company noted that the region’s geography, as well as older and deeper coal seams located in the area could have resulted in higher emissions of the toxic gas.
An analysis published by Kayrros earlier this year revealed that an average of 7.5kg of methane is released for every tonne of coal produced in the Bowen Basin region. This is 47 per cent higher than the average global methane intensity estimated by the International Energy Agency.
