Methane is an important greenhouse gas that has contributed to ∼25% of the increase in radiative forcing experienced to date. Despite methane’s short atmospheric lifetime (~10 years), the global average methane mole fraction has increased three times faster than carbon dioxide since 1750. Rapid and severe reductions in methane emissions are required to lower peak warming, reduce the likelihood of overshooting warming limits and reduce reliance on net negative carbon dioxide emissions. In order to track mitigation efforts and ensure emission quantification required in legislation can be met, we must be able to accurately attribute and quantify emissions and are actively doing so through activities such as the UNEP International Methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO).
This session will highlight measurement studies at all scales and from ground-based to satellites, that focus on quantification and source attribution of methane emissions from human activities. We especially encourage submissions from both IMEO and non-IMEO funded work that focus on the following topics (1) new technologies / methods to provide accurate and repeatable emissions measurements, (2) demonstration of affordable and reliable quantification methods for mitigation tracking (3) allow attribution of emissions to specific sources and / or (4) methods for upscaling measurements into inventories and creating policy relevant datasets.