Why methane
Methane traps around 80 times more heat than the same mass of CO₂ over 20 years, and it leaves the air in roughly a decade. Cut it now and you slow warming within the years you will live through.
Where the methane goes
Most of the work is plumbing. Tap a number, or let the diagram walk you through it.
The uncomfortable part
“Some of the most useful climate work looks like plumbing. Valves, wells, pipes and a meter nobody photographs.”
Mass for mass, methane carries roughly 80 times the warming power of CO₂ across the 20 years after release. Stretch the horizon to 100 years and the figure falls to about 30.
Both numbers are correct. The 20-year one tells you where speed pays off.
The IEA puts methane behind around 30% of the rise in global temperature since the Industrial Revolution. UNEP's Global Methane Assessment found that human-caused methane could fall by up to 45% this decade, avoiding nearly 0.3°C of warming by 2045.
Few climate levers move that much heat that quickly. This one has a deadline written into its chemistry.
Leaking valves. Venting wells. Landfills breathing gas into the sky. The IEA lists repairs and equipment upgrades that stop methane escaping from oil and gas operations, and some of them pay for themselves because the captured gas has a buyer.
Waste and farming need different tools and more money. Collecting landfill gas, for one, is a physical job with wells, pipes, a blower and a flare or an engine at the end.
Methane cuts slow warming in the near term. Deep, lasting CO₂ cuts set where warming finally stops. A serious plan needs both. Keep the heat pump.
We look hard at methane because the timing favours action now. To start, we'll co-finance methane projects that can't go ahead without extra funding, and at the same time we're building towards our own first site.
Follow the projects we co-finance and our first site. We'll publish what the work achieves, with its method and sources.
Pick a horizon
≈80×
The warming from a tonne of methane, compared with a tonne of CO₂, over the 20 years after release.
Sources: UNEP and IPCC AR6 WG1, Table 7.15. Scientific figures describe the world, not ClimateCurrent results.
Questions about why methane
Trees are wonderful. They are designed to solve a different problem: they grow slowly, and drought or fire can undo the work. Destroyed methane stays destroyed, and the cooling effect arrives within years.
No. Methane cuts slow warming in the near term. Deep, lasting CO₂ cuts decide where warming ends up. Both are needed.
Global warming potential adds up a gas's warming over a chosen period after release. Methane's short lifetime gives it about 80 times the effect of CO₂ over 20 years and about 30 times over 100 years, mass for mass. Any comparison should name its horizon. The methane briefing
No. Some fixes pay for themselves because the captured gas can be sold. Others need new money and infrastructure. A global cost estimate says nothing about one specific project. Read the cost analysis
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