Chasing after methane’s ultra-emitters

The latest emissions gap report from the United Nations Environment Programme highlighted that current and planned mitigation measures are insufficient to achieve the goal of the Paris Agreement of limiting global warming to 1.5°C above preindustrial temperatures (1). When national representatives gathered at the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow last November, a plan to rapidly decrease methane emissions emerged, with over 100 countries joining the Global Methane Pledge aimed at reducing global methane emissions by at least 30% from 2020 amounts by 2030. While policy-makers try to enact climate-related legislation, scientists are trying to identify more cost-effective or quick ways to curb greenhouse gas emissions. On page 557 of this issue, Lauvaux et al. (2) highlight how methane emissions can be effectively reduced by targeting ultra-emitter sites identified by the European Space Agency’s satellite-based TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) (3).