When we produce oil or fossil gas, we emit methane (CH4), a potent greenhouse gas (GHG). A little, say the national emissions inventories. But already too much for the climate. Far too many, say today researchers who consider the figures of the inventories largely underestimated.
Methane (CH4), as we now know, is a particularly potent greenhouse gas (GHG). It is, after the carbon dioxidecarbon dioxide (CO2), the second largest contributor to global warming. The extraction and transport of oiloil a you gazgaz fossil are one of the major anthropogenic sources of CH4 in the air. And researchers from Princeton University (United States) are now showing that these activities could emit far more GHGs than experts had previously imagined.
The researchers thus reveal that up to five times more methane is emitted by the production offshoreoffshore of fossil oil and gas in the UK than what the government has reported. An error of declaration which results, according to them, from a bad method of calculation. And since many countries use the same, the underestimation of emissionsemissions de CH4 probably not limited to the UK.
Avoidable methane emissions
What the Princeton University researchers are pointing to are emission factors – an estimate of the methane emissions associated with each activity – applied to oil or gas discovery, extraction and production activities. offshore fossil. Some would be obsolete or poorly adapted. They would thus not be sensitive to environmental conditions. And they don’t account for the very real leaks that occur when offshore rigs are idle.
Recall that the durationduration relatively short lifetime of methane in the atmosphere and its strong ability to trap heatheat reduce our CH emissions4 one of the most effective ways to slow the rate of climate change. However, in the past, work has already shown that reducing leakage in the oil and fossil gas supply chain can advance the objectives while being economically profitable. So much information to take into account as the first one prepares “world report” progress made in the implementation of the Paris Agreement on the weatherweather.
