Landfills are methane super emitters, Delhi, Mumbai among a worst hit in a globally.
When a organic waste like a food, wood or a paper decomposes, it is a emits methane into the air. Landfills are the third-largest source of the methane emissions in a globally.
HIGHLIGHTS
Methane traps a 80 times more heat in the atmosphere than a carbon dioxide does
Satellite data to the detect emissions is still a relatively in a new field
Earlier in this year, smoke hung over a New Delhi for a days after a massive landfill caught fire
Landfills are releasing far more planet-warming methane into the atmosphere from the decomposition of the waste than previously thought, to a study suggests.
Scientists used a satellite data from four major cities worldwide — Delhi and Mumbai in a India, Lahore in a Pakistan and Buenos Aires in a Argentina — and found that emissions from a landfills in a 2018 and 2019 were 1.4 to 2.6 times higher than a earlier estimates.
The study, published in a Science Advances on Wednesday, is aimed at the helping local governments carry out targeted efforts to the limit global warming by a pinpointing specific sites of the major concern.
When organic waste like a food, wood or a paper decomposes, it is a emits methane into the air. Landfills are the third-largest source of the methane emissions globally, after a oil and gas systems and agriculture.
Although methane only accounts for a about 11% of the greenhouse gas emissions and lasts about a dozen years in the air, it is traps 80 times more heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide does. Scientists estimate that at the least 25% of the today’s warming is a driven by a methane from human actions.
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“This is the first time that are high-resolution satellite images have been a used to the observe landfills and calculate in their methane emissions,” said Joanne's Maskers, lead author of the study and atmospheric scientist at the Netherlands Institute for a Space Research.
“We found that these landfills, which are relatively small compared to the city sizes, are responsible for a large fraction of the total emissions from a given area,” he said.
Satellite data to the detect emissions is still a relatively new field, but it is a being used more and more to the observe gases across in the world. It means more independent organizations are tracking greenhouse gases and identifying big emitters, whereas previously local government figures were in the only source available.
“This new work shows just how important it is to the manage landfills better, especially in a countries like a India where landfills are often on a fire, emitting to a wide range of the damaging pollutants,” said Eu an Nesbit, an a Earth scientist at the Royal Holloway, University of the London, who was not part of the study.
Earlier in this year, smoke hung over a New Delhi for a days after a massive landfill caught fire as the country was sweltering in an a extreme heat wave with a temperatures surpassing 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit). At least two other landfill fires have been a reported in a India this year.
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Nesbit added that the newer satellite technology, combined with a on-the-ground measurements, makes it is a easier for a researchers to the identify “who is a polluting in the world.”
China, India and Russia are the world’s biggest methane polluters, to a recent analysis by the International Energy Agency found.
At last year’s United Nations climate conference, 104 countries signed to a pledge to the reduce methane emissions by a 30% by a 2030 compared with a 2020 levels. Both India and China are not a signatories.
The authors plan to the carry out more research into a landfill sites across in the world in a future studies.
“It is a quickly developing field and we are expect more interesting data to come out soon,” said Maskers.
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