Indonesia Grossly Underestimating Methane Leaking from Coal Mines
Indonesia Grossly Underestimating Methane Leaking from Coal Mines - Yale E360
Emissions of methane from Indonesian coal mines are eight times higher than official estimates would suggest, a new report finds.
Indonesia is the world’s third-largest producer of coal, after India and China, and its mines are a fast-growing source of methane, a potent heat-trapping gas found in pockets alongside coal seams.
But Indonesia has significantly underestimated the amount of methane unleashed for every ton of coal produced at surface mines, according to an analysis from energy think tank Ember. And it has neglected to account for emissions from several underground mines.
In total, coal methane emissions are likely eight times higher than indicated in Indonesia’s most recent report to the U.N. Ember estimates that methane leaking from Indonesian coal mines this year will do more to fuel warming than emissions from all wildfires across the country in 2022.
Scientists say that cutting emissions of methane, which linger in the atmosphere for only around a decade, is essential to reining in warming in the short term. Indonesia is one of more than 150 countries that has pledged slash methane emissions by 30 percent by 2030.
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As the production of natural gas from shale fields has expanded, so have methane emissions. U.S. methane emissions grew 27 percent from 1990 to 2009, according to the Energy Information Administration. Methane contributes about 10 percent of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and is 25 times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.