The Case for Methane Removal
Excerpted from Pull the "undo methane" lever by K Young
You may be aware of CDR—the idea is to remove CO2 from our atmosphere in order to slow and reverse atmospheric warming. This article is about doing the same thing, but with methane. If we remove 400 MT (megatons) of methane from our atmosphere every year by 2040, we can hope to shave ~1ºC off peak global warming. This would be a huge deal; no other comparatively safe approach that I'm aware of gets anywhere near this level of impact.
CO2 is not enough
To keep our world mostly stable, we must not let it warm more than 1.5ºC (above pre-industrial levels)—warmer temperatures would mean the accelerated unraveling of systems. But we're already at 1.2ºC, and according to the U.N., there is no credible pathway to stay within the 1.5ºC limit. Even with all our progress with CO2 emissions reductions, it seems we are on track for a calamitous 2.6ºC of warming.
Methane to the rescue
But! In addition to emitting CO2, we’ve also been emitting a lot of methane. Humans have more than doubled the amount of methane in our atmosphere since pre-industrial times. That excess methane is responsible for more than ⅓ rd of our current warming. The good news is: it may be much more efficient to reduce methane in the atmosphere than CO2. (Note: though this article doesn’t focus on methane emission reductions, rapid, deep, reductions are absolutely critical. The projections that follow depend on them).
The scenarios below represent net human-caused emissions, meaning emissions minus any removals. Each scenario starts at today's 400 MT/year of human-caused methane emissions and then diverges. They range from the black, current-business-as-usual trajectory which never drops much below 200 MT, to the dark blue, exceptionally ambitious reduction trajectory which hits zero (meaning net-zero methane emissions) in 2032, and -250 MT in 2040. For reasons that are too in-depth for this brief article, I don’t believe that we'll reduce emissions to zero. If we follow the dark blue line, we may succeed in getting our human-caused emissions down to 150 MT/year, which will leave us with another 400 MT/year to remove from the atmosphere by 2040.
The next graph (below) shows just how much each of these net methane emission scenarios (above) would affect global temperatures. Again, the black line shows our current optimistic warming trajectory: 2.6ºC above pre-industrial levels in about 70 years.
Whether our ultimate peak temperature is 1.4ºC or 1.5ºC... or 2.6ºC really matters. Once we hit certain temperatures, parts of our ecosystem will change forever or die. Reducing global temperatures back to current levels in the future will not restore our world any more than putting out a house fire will restore a home.
An aside about CO2 removal
CO2 removal is a key front in our fight to repair the climate. But CO2 removal will not dramatically affect surface temperatures in the next 10–20 years. It's a technology whose effect will bloom a bit later. Why? Because each 1,000 MT of CO2 removed will reduce temperatures by just 0.0005ºC. I think of CO2 removal as the next runner in this climate-stabilization relay race; it is now speeding up and gaining momentum so that methane removal can hand off the baton in a few decades.
Methane removal
All this brings us to why atmospheric methane removal would be so effective. Removing 1,000 MT of methane from the atmosphere today would reduce global temperatures by 0.1ºC 10 years from now—approximately 200 times more effective for cooling the atmosphere than CO2 over that timeframe, pound for pound. To be clear, over much longer periods of time, the effect of current methane removal would drop to zero because it would have naturally degraded anyway. For example, after 20 years, methane removal would only have 100 times the effect of CO2 removal and would continue to drop from there.
Methane does not need to be captured, transported, or stored. Instead, it can be rapidly aged and destroyed (oxidized into CO2) on the spot. Of course, the CO2 could then be captured, but even if it were not captured, oxidizing methane reduces its warming effect by about 200x over the following 10 years, as described above.
Strategies
Some research has been done on methane removal, but there is still a lot to discover. Several promising strategies need more attention and research, including aerosolized chemical catalysts (iron-salts, photocatalysts, and hydrogen peroxide), methanotrophs (microorganisms that consume methane for energy), and to a lesser degree catalyzing materials (photocatalysts and zeolites).
What to do
If you want to help, here are some things you could do. If you're a:
Funder: Please fund primary research. Despite the huge impact of methane removal, very little work is happening in this area.
Founder: Dig in, then start a company in this area.
Researcher: Thank you. Keep at it or start a company.
Policymaker or elected official: Thank you, as well. Please help route funding toward methane reduction and removal, and create or enforce methane-emission policies.
Everyone else: Find an organization that is currently working on reducing global methane emissions, and join them.
Thank You
Special “thank you” to all the researchers' work I reference, plus reviewers: John Matson, Erika Reinhardt, and Sam Abernethy.
🍿 The Lean Back
Watch the latest Climate Town video ft. Not Just Bikes.
👩💻 Climate Jobs
For more open positions, check out the #j-climatejobs channel in MCJ Slack as well as our MCJ Job Board.
Art Director at Air Company (Manhattan, NY)
Engineering Manager - Platform Experience at Arcadia (Remote)
Analytical Chemist at Charm Industrial (San Francisco, CA)
Pricing Manager at David Energy (Brooklyn, NY)
Senior Process Development Engineer at Heirloom (Brisbane, CA)
Platform Engineer at Leap (Remote)
Associate Marketing Designer at LevelTen Energy (Seattle, WA)
Sr Electrical Engineer at Moment Energy (Coquitlam, BC)
Head of Program Management at Noya (Oakland, CA)
Carbon Project Success Manager at Pachama (Remote)
Senior Enterprise Account Executive at Rheaply (Remote)
Ocean Research Scientist at Running Tide (Remote)
Senior People Business Partner at Twelve (Remote)
Mechanical Engineer at Yardstick (Oakland, CA)
✨ Community Highlights
🎥 Welcome Zoë Furlong to the MCJ team! She’s a passionate storyteller with experience creating video content for UNICEF, Microsoft, various nonprofits, and wildlife conservation documentaries. Zoë is based in Seattle, WA, and enjoys exploring the Pacific Northwest. Don’t miss her incredible production skills on our YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.
🗓 Upcoming Events
Click the event title for details & RSVP info. For more climate events, check out the #c-events channel in MCJ Slack.
📹 MCJ AMA - Rollie Williams / Climate Town: The host of Climate Town is joining us on the #c-mcj-ama Slack channel and answering your questions for 24 hours. Details/RSVP here. Listen to Rollie’s MCJ podcast with Cody Simms here. (7/27)
🍻 Minneapolis / St. Paul Meetup: Monthly gathering for the local climate community. (7/20)
👋 MCJ Community Welcome Call: Connect, share and learn with members. (7/20)
👭 Women in Climate Meetup: Monthly meetup for women who work in, or want to work in, climate. (7/26)
🇨🇦 MCJ Toronto Climate Series - Circularity: Join us for networking and to learn from Haley Anderson, Nikki Self, & Jason Greenberg. (7/26)
🍻 MCJ DC Meetup: Whether you're a climate veteran or looking to transition, join us to chat about sustainability and climate tech. (8/10)
⚡️ Monthly Idea Jams: Two presenters will pitch their ideas to the group, and attending community members will provide their feedback. (8/18)
The MCJ Collective Newsletter is a free weekly email curating news, jobs, My Climate Journey podcast episodes, and other noteworthy happenings in the MCJ member community.
💭 If you have feedback or items you’d like to include, feel free to reach out.
🤝 If you’d like to become an MCJ community member, apply today.
💡 Have a climate-related event or content topic that you'd like to see in the MCJ newsletter? Email us at content@mcjcollective.com
Great piece on Methane Removal. Would love to hear a pod on this!