Example
Agriculture, waste management and fossil fuel production are major source groups.
The catch
Natural sources such as wetlands are separate from human-caused inventories.
Related terms
Fossil fuel, Methane, Wetland, Biogenic methane, Flaring, Fossil methane
In more depth
Anthropogenic methane, explained.
Anthropogenic methane is the part of the methane problem that human decisions can cut, and the payoff comes quickly. The IEA attributes about 30% of the rise in global temperatures since the Industrial Revolution to methane. Because the gas stays in the atmosphere for roughly a decade, sustained reductions slow warming within the lifetimes of the people who make them.
The word describes cause, while biogenic methane and fossil methane describe where the carbon came from. A dairy herd's emissions are both human-caused and biogenic, so the categories overlap. Measurement adds a further wrinkle. Satellites and aircraft now check reported figures from above, and the IEA finds energy-sector emissions well above what governments officially report.