Tackling the methane menace

Last week, a journal — Science Advances — found that 26 per cent of methane emissions in business headquarters of Mumbai originates in landfills. The corresponding figure for Delhi has been six per cent. The finding indicates that there is a need to diversify and scale up the attempts towards tackling the methane problem in India. Rather than expressing hopelessness around the limitations of acting over the agricultural sector, the governments, for a start, should look forward to rigorously controlling methane emissions in the waste and energy sector. The threat posed by methane emissions is no mystery. Methane is the second most abundant greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide (CO2) — causing around 25 per cent of the overall global warming. The heat-trapping ability of methane, when compared to CO2, is exponentially higher. Although its persistence in the environment is limited to a decade, compared to several decades in case of CO2, it is expected to become more threatening in the future. Its growth trajectory is already seeing an upward surge. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, global methane emissions in 2021 were 15 per cent higher than in 1984-2006. While much of the global warming debate is concentrated on controlling CO2 (which is showing no signs of abatement), methane emissions have been largely overlooked. The methane menace simply adds another layer of complexity in our fight against climate change. The Paris Climate Agreement's goal of limiting global temperatures to 1.5-2 degree Celsius by 2030 appears to be slipping away from hand. UNEP's Global Methane Assessment 2021 has proposed to cut methane emissions by 40-45 per cent through the period to achieve desirable results. In the case of India, it may be pertinent to track methane's production sources before strategizing its reduction in the environment. Naturally, methane is emitted from wetlands and swampy surfaces, or through decomposition of organic matter in low-oxygen surroundings. Oceanic surfaces also serve as a source of methane emissions. Anthropogenically, methane is emitted during commercial mining of fossil fuels. Landfills containing huge masses of human-generated waste have also emerged as major sources of methane emissions. Most importantly, methane emissions result from the agricultural sector, to which cattle rearing is an integral part. Most of the small and marginal farmers in northern India own cattle to supplement their fluctuating agricultural incomes. Methane is emitted from cattle through enteric fermentation during the course of the cattle's digestion. However, the key agricultural factor contributing to methane emissions is the cultivation of paddy which requires swampy and water-logged land. It is a worrying fact that while natural emission of methane is shrinking, its phenomenal rise, overall, has been triggered by human factors. As per Global Methane Tracker, agriculture accounts for 61 per cent of total methane emissions, energy sector accounts for 16.4 per cent and the waste sector accounts for 19.8 per cent. Representatives from the government, on certain occasions, have expressed their limitations in going with ambitious methane emission reduction plans. The core argument is that it will overburden India's already languishing small and marginal farmers — something that has been argued by science and ecology experts as well. It is true that any abrupt transition from existing to required agricultural practices may prove to be contrary to farmers' interest but a gradual and smooth process needs to be initiated at the earliest. Meanwhile, efforts can be accelerated to control methane emissions in the energy and waste sectors. Managing landfills and wetlands in cosmopolitan cities like Delhi and Mumbai can buy some time for transition in the agriculture sector in rural areas to gain traction. Meanwhile, schemes like Galvanising Organic Bio-Agro Resources (Gobar-Dhan) and National Livestock Mission need to be remodeled as per present requirements. Awareness among the masses around the benefit of such schemes will drive their voluntary acceptance. In a world where the climate change problem is exacerbating with each passing day, there is no time to wait.