News & Events

  • Home
  • News & Events
  • 2021
  • Methane Concentrations and Emissions over the past three decades: Human activity in energy exploitation and livestock farming drive the growth

Methane Concentrations and Emissions over the past three decades: Human activity in energy exploitation and livestock farming drive the growth

2021.02.01

An international research group led by Naveen Chandra of National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES), Tsukuba, and the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), Yokosuka performed the first quantitative study of CH4 growth rate in Earth's atmosphere covering the past 3 decades. The research found out the emissions from oil and gas exploitation and natural climate events slowed down CH4 growth rate (1988-1998) and led to the temporary pause (1999-2006).
This achievement was published in Journal of the Meteorological Society of Japan online on December 4th, 2020.


Evolution of the observed and simulated concentrations (top) and growth rates (bottom) in the southern hemisphere (SH) during 1988-2016
Click here for the press release.