Industry Odisha Bureau, May 6: Since the United Nations Organisation (UNO) has reportedly expanded its Methane Alert and Response System (MARS) on May 4 this year to cover coal mines and waste facilities, its satellite analysis has reportedly identified a landfill in India among the world’s three highest methane-emitting sites.
Having reportedly discovered “coal mining and waste management were major sources of methane emissions around the world”, the significant analysis made by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and published on April 23 this year startles with its findings that “the highest methane-emitting site in India is the Kanjurmarg landfill”, while two of its counterparts are reportedly in Chile. (Kanjurmarg is a suburb situated in the eastern-central part of Mumbai in Maharashtra)
Moreover, a recent satellite-based study based on data reportedly processed by Carbon Mapper as well as analysed by world-renowned premier public research university UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles, USA), has also reportedly identified two more such Indian landfills located in Mumbai (Maharashtra) and Secunderabad (Telengana) earning a dubious distinction of being among the world’s top 25 methane-emitting landfill sites.
Notably, “MARS uses data from more than 35 satellites to identify methane ‘super-emitters’ detected from the space”.
More importantly, “Alerts are sent to the countries and industries concerned to initiate actions”, while “UN MARS also monitors whether the detected-cum-alerted methane-super-emitters have been addressed or not along with the mitigation of future methane emissions”.
Pertinent to note here that, “Methane is more than 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas over a 20-year period, but it is relatively short-lived in the atmosphere. It breaks down after about a decade, whereas carbon dioxide can remain in the atmosphere for hundreds of years. This makes identifying and reducing methane emissions one of the more immediate ways to cut greenhouse gases.”
