Methane rising faster than other greenhouse gases: researchers

Paris: Concentrations in the atmosphere of the powerful greenhouse gas methane are rising at an accelerating pace, threatening efforts by countries to...

Paris: Concentrations in the atmosphere of the powerful greenhouse gas methane are rising at an accelerating pace, threatening efforts by countries to meet their climate targets, researchers warned on Tuesday.

"Methane is rising faster in relative terms than any major greenhouse gas and is now 2.6-fold higher than in pre-industrial times," said an international group of researchers under the aegis of the Global Carbon Project in a study published in Environmental Research Letters.

Methane is the second most abundant greenhouse gas produced by human activity after carbon dioxide, with agriculture, energy production and organic waste rotting in landfills the major sources.

In the first 20 years, its impact on the atmosphere is about 80 times more powerful that of carbon dioxide but it breaks down more quickly than CO2.

That opens a possibility to sharply reduce climate impact in the short term. But the researchers found that despite efforts to cut methane emissions, atmospheric concentrations of the gas are still rising.