ROMA – Methane is, after CO2, the main cause of global warming. Although it is relatively easy to reduce emissions, the improvement is slow and small. Methane has a much shorter residence time in the atmosphere than CO2, but its effect is 84 times stronger, as stated by data fromISPRA, the Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research, an Italian public research body. It is not just the methane extracted from the subsoil, but also that produced by the intensive farming of cattle, pigs and sheep, as underlined by a note from Greenpeace. The entire panorama of the following numbers can be learned from the website Openpoliswhich collects data to produce useful and quality information, thus building a public heritage that is open and enriched every day.
The interdependencies that form the deadly chain. The overall picture shows a very close interdependence between the increasingly frequent and widespread food crises in low-income countries, with the increase in extreme poverty, linked in turn to the inevitable forced migrations caused precisely by those crises: All caused by natural phenomena caused by intensive industrial activities in rich countries. It thus appears clear how old models of economic development are harmful to the environmental situation of our present and near future. Once again, in short, this picture reminds us how the global reasons for the misfortunes of others, suffered by poor countries, are generated by the richest part of the planet, where 1% of the world population owns 63% of the increase in wealth global.
COP 29: the struggles and frictions on the climate. The next COP will be number 29 and will take place in Baku, , from 11 to 22 November 2024. As always happens, one of the points on which it will be difficult to reach an agreement on the climate concerns compensation for the losses and damage caused from climate change in countries that are least responsible for it. The large emitters have so far managed to dodge any promise of compensation for resulting catastrophes from their unbridled use of fossil fuels (data from Focus) with various justifications: first of all, it is very difficult to attribute a single and specific harmful event to the transformation we are imposing on the global climate.
A few numbers on methane.
– 59% of methane emissions are generated by human activities, in 53% of cases attributable to agriculture.
– 2,869 tonnes per 10 thousand people emitted in Italy in 2020: less than the EU average.
– Since 2011, emissions have fallen by only 6.8%.
– In the energy sector emissions are underestimated by 70%.
Methane is 30% responsible for global warming. In a recent study, greenhouse gas emissions were discussed as one of the main topics under discussion in the Cop27. Within this category, in addition to the well-known carbon dioxide, there is another equally harmful agent: methane (CH4). According to the international energy agency (Iea), methane is in fact responsible for 30% of the increase in temperatures globally, from the industrial revolution to today. It is in fact the second pollutant after CO2 in terms of contribution to anthropogenic climate change. On a molecular level it is actually much more powerful.
Half of the methane produced is generated by human activities. Despite being a naturally occurring substance, over half of the methane in the atmosphere is generated by human activities. 41% have natural origins (in particular from wetlands and wildland fires), while 59% have anthropogenic origins, which constitute approximately 9.5% of total greenhouse gas emissions. However, while total emissions decreased in Italy by 26.5% between 1990 and 2020, the reduction in the case of methane was decidedly more limited: -13.4%. However, the situation in Europe is different, where on average the drop stands at 36% (32% for greenhouse gases as a whole).
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