California based nonprofit organization Carbon Mapper recently launched a new initiative to conduct a global assessment of thousands of high-emitting solid waste sites using remote-sensing technologies. This program will be guided with the support of USD 8 million commitment from the Grantham Foundation. Boston based Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment focuses on climate change mitigation.
Global assessment initiative
The recently announced global effort would integrate remote sensing observations with active detection and quantification of site-specific methane emissions. The exercise would establish a baseline of high-emitting solid waste sector sites from different parts of the world.
An initial remote-sensing survey of more than 1,000 managed landfills and open dumpsites across the US, Canada and key locations in Latin America, Africa and Asia is planned in 2023. In addition to expanding airborne surveys, Carbon Mapper will begin analysis of data from the Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT), an instrument managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory that is housed on the International Space Station.
A more comprehensive global survey of more than ten thousand landfills and dumpsites is planned for 2024. Observational data from the project will be released through the Carbon Mapper Data Portal, including geolocated plume images, emissions rates and new landfill-specific analytics.
Methane emissions proving to be a great concern
There is a growing concern regarding the harmful effects on the global environment from methane emissions. In fact estimates have shown that methane has accounted for roughly 30 per cent of global warming since pre-industrial times and is proliferating faster than at any other time since record keeping began in the 1980s. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas which is more potent at atmospheric warming effects than carbon dioxide.
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Solid waste landfills a source of methane emission
Municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills are one of the largest source of human-related methane emissions. Methane emission contributes to harmful climate change effects. Landfills emit methane when organic wastes such as food scraps, wood and paper decompose. Landfills are one of three main sources of human methane pollution, along with livestock and the oil and gas industry.
However many countries especially governments of developing countries have not been able to address the challenges posed by this sector due to inadequate funding and technical requirement. “We are grateful for Grantham Foundation’s philanthropic leadership to tackle methane emissions from the waste sector, which comes at a critical time given the urgency of the climate crisis and the outsized role methane plays in warming our planet,” said Carbon Mapper CEO Riley Duren at the announcement of the global assessment initiative for methane emission tracking. “Understanding point-sources and super-emitters from waste sites is a first step to mitigating them, and new technological capabilities have the potential to change the game—elevating our collective understanding of near-term opportunities in this often-overlooked sector” continued Riley.
Addressing methane emission mitigation efforts
The recently announced global assessment initiative will fill gaps in societal and scientific understanding of methane emissions from solid waste sites by establishing the first measurement derived baseline of high-emission facilities that can inform regulations, operational monitoring and investment priorities useful to countries delivering on the Global Methane Pledge. The Pledge aims to catalyze global action and strengthen support for existing international methane emission reduction initiatives to advance technical and policy work that will serve to underpin Participants’ domestic actions.
Insufficient monitoring and inadequate economic and logistical support have limited methane abatement efforts all over the world. In this perspective the just announced initiative is a positive step towards addressing this global challenge. The upcoming remote sensing surveys and the resultant information which will be available will provide precise, facility-level waste methane emissions data. This data in turn would be very useful for operators, regulators, community groups and other stakeholders to inform and prioritize near-term mitigation actions.
