{"id":504,"date":"2025-04-24T10:35:44","date_gmt":"2025-04-24T15:35:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.american.edu\/carbonremoval\/?p=504"},"modified":"2025-05-29T12:47:38","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T17:47:38","slug":"504","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.american.edu\/carbonremoval\/2025\/04\/24\/504\/","title":{"rendered":"Methane and Super Pollutants: A New Pillar to Support Carbon Markets – Climagination with Jason Grillo"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo by Vincent M.A. Janssen, Pexels<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Methane and Super Pollutants: A New Pillar to Support Carbon Markets<\/b><\/p>\n

Controlling super pollutant emissions can have a rapid, outsized impact on climate change, while offering high quality carbon credits. Markets are taking notice.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

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Hello once more, and thank you for reading!<\/span><\/p>\n

Good things often come in fours – the ancient Greeks believed in four elements of earth, air, fire, and water; The Three Musketeers had Athos, Porthos, Aramis, <\/span>and D\u2019Artagnan<\/span><\/i>; and the Beatles were a (Fab) Four.<\/span><\/p>\n

The same can be true for carbon markets. To date voluntary and compliance sectors have stood on three major pillars of credit classes: avoidance (including RECs and REDD+), nature based solutions, and durable carbon dioxide removal.<\/span><\/p>\n

Today I\u2019m going to provide an overview on what I believe to be the <\/span>fourth <\/b>\u2018pillar\u2019 of carbon markets: methane and super pollutant elimination credits. Controlling emissions of these non-CO<\/span>2<\/span><\/sub> gases are crucially important for shaving off near-term temperature increases as they have an outsized impact on global warming relative to CO<\/span>2<\/span><\/sub>. While I\u2019m going to synthesize from a wide variety of sources, most of my focus will be on methane as the super pollutant most responsible for warming to date.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is not to say that we don\u2019t need crediting for CO<\/span>2<\/span><\/sub> – rather that a portfolio approach that includes the all important \u201ce\u201d in CO<\/span>2<\/span><\/sub>e<\/b> for \u2018equivalent\u2019, which can change the shape of carbon markets and provide an important tool for supporting climate action.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s three questions I\u2019m going to address briefly:<\/span><\/p>\n

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    1. Why are Super Pollutants so important?<\/b><\/li>\n
    2. How are solutions for them created today?<\/b><\/li>\n
    3. What makes this new category \u2018real\u2019 in carbon markets?<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Why are Methane and Super Pollutants so important?<\/b><\/h3>\n

      Methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone depleting fluorocarbons account for a significant portion of climate change forcing that we are experiencing today. Methane emissions are responsible for about<\/span> 30% of recent warming<\/span><\/a> , and nitrous oxide has caused about<\/span> 10% of warming<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

      Even though super pollutant concentrations are much lower than CO<\/span>2<\/span><\/sub> in the atmosphere (e.g. methane is at around ~2ppm vs CO<\/span>2<\/span>\u2019s 420ppm), super pollutant gases have a high global warming potential as measured over a 100 year time period relative to CO<\/span>2<\/span><\/sub>:<\/span><\/p>\n

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      Chart from Ghgprotocol.org<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

      Eliminating these emissions are a huge opportunity for impactful climate action to manage as outlined in the US National Academy of Science Engineering and Math<\/span> report in 2024.<\/span><\/a> Targeting non-CO<\/span>2<\/span><\/sub> greenhouse gases can shave off significant risks from climate change before 2050:<\/span><\/p>\n

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      Source: NASEM, 2024<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

      The speed of change by managing methane emissions is striking. Because the CH<\/span>4<\/span><\/sub> molecule is active and unstable, it breaks down within 15 years – so stopping emissions <\/span>now <\/span><\/i>could lead to a rapid decline in atmospheric concentrations. To use the famous \u2018bathtub\u2019 metaphor, it\u2019s not just that stopping water entering the tub means that the water doesn\u2019t rise anymore: it means that the excess water (i.e. ambient atmospheric methane) will disappear in a fraction of the time relative to CO<\/span>2<\/span><\/sub>.<\/span><\/p>\n

      The result, per<\/span> Dr. Gabriel Dreyfus et al<\/span><\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

      \u201cnon-CO<\/span>2<\/span><\/sub> targeted measures when combined with decarbonization can provide net cooling by 2030 and reduce the rate of warming from 2030 to 2050 by about 50%, roughly half of which comes from methane\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

      In other words, we can slow down global warming by focusing activity on methane and other non-CO<\/span>2<\/span><\/sub> super pollutants.<\/span><\/p>\n

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      Source: NASEM 2024<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

      How do we create solutions for Super Pollutants?<\/b><\/h3>\n

      To start, the atmospheric science community is advancing rapidly to pinpoint hotspots now visible through satellite imagery or other detection solutions. Turning off these excess emission sources at the metaphorical spigot enables businesses to generate emissions avoidance credits. Destroying these gases as well is a credit generating project.<\/span><\/p>\n

      Considering methane, major emission sources include but are not exclusively:<\/span><\/p>\n