UK admits just half of methane emissions
Seen the The Register, UK admits just half of methane emissions.
Methane emissions in the UK could be twice as high as government estimates, new European research suggests.
The findings, reported in today’s New Scientist magazine, come from Peter Bergamaschi of the European commission joint research centre at Ispra in Italy.
Rather than taking countries’ own internal estimates at face value, Bergamaschi and his team produced their estimates by analysing the distribution of methane in the atmosphere.
The team collected the raw data using chemical detectors that check for atmospheric methane. Then they tracked backwards through recent weather systems to see where the methane was likely to have originated.
But it isn’t just Old Blighty who’s been understating their emissions,
France could be underestimating its methane production by 47 per cent, according to the researchers.
Until recently, Germany was reporting 62 per cent less methane than this study suggests it generates. However, the German government recently, and apparently independently, revised their figures upwards by 70 per cent, The Guardian reports.
Right across Europe emissions are still on the rise.
The publication of the research coincides with the latest figures from the European Union. These show that, even excluding emissions from aviation and shipping, the UK’s emissions rose by 0.2 per cent between 2003 and 2004. Across Europe the rise was 0.4 per cent.
The clock is ticking folks, and we all have to work together to cut carbon emissions now. — DS
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