Right now, greenhouse gases across Australia are responsible for an inaccurate national emissions figure, underestimating it by around 10 per cent. According to several sources – including The Guardian – this is primarily due to an error in judging the impact of methane that’s released during stages of production.
Recently, energy and emissions reduction minister, Angus Taylor altered laws to better embrace the revelation around methane playing a bigger role in global warming than previously expected. Although the lifespan of methane is short, it’s highly potent and often leaks during processing stages of gas production.
According to The Guardian, that particular amendment is expected to increase the national emissions figure by 3 per cent.
Why is methane so harmful to the environment?
Out of all the fossil fuels available, natural gas is the cleanest. In some cases, methane actually offers exceptional environmental benefits, allowing for more heath and light production. It also creates far less carbon dioxide and various other pollutants that are likely to cause smog and less-than-ideal air for us to breathe in.
The challenge, however, is that when it is released into the air before it is burned up, it’s harmful to the environment. That’s because it traps heat into the atmosphere and becomes a contributing factor in climate change.
The lifespan of methane is relatively short compared to other greenhouse gases, but it’s far better at trapping in that heat as well. And although there are ways that nature itself can eliminate these harmful emissions from the atmosphere, the problem still remains with humans.
As the world stands, methane production is a part of our economy, despite our need to move away from fossil fuels. Where the opportunity could lie, however, is in capturing methane from wastewater treatment plants or as a result of dairies, thereby using it as fuel and eliminating the unnecessary dependency on other fossil fuels.
For now – especially here in Australia – we need to reassess the amounts of methane generated on our behalf, and better factor it into the equation of overall carbon emissions.
How much carbon emissions does Australia produce?
When looking at Australia on a per capita basis, Australia is one of the highest contributors of carbon dioxide in the world. Our 0.03 per cent of the global population produces 1.07 per cent of global emissions – a significant figure, given our size.
However, we are also heavily reliant on coal power (70 per cent), a fact that the government has recently been working towards transitioning into renewables. As the years roll on, our emissions are slowly decreasing, but our dependency on fossil fuels and coal-fired power still needs to be shifted.
