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Observed changes in China's methane emissions linked to policy drivers.

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posted on 2023-01-06, 16:49 authored by Yuzhong Zhang, Shuangxi Fang, Jianmeng Chen, Yi Lin, Yuanyuan Chen, Ruosi Liang, Ke Jiang, Robert J Parker, Hartmut Boesch, Martin Steinbacher, Jian-Xiong Sheng, Xiao Lu, Shaojie Song, Shushi Peng
China is set to actively reduce its methane emissions in the coming decade. A comprehensive evaluation of the current situation can provide a reference point for tracking the country's future progress. Here, using satellite and surface observations, we quantify China's methane emissions during 2010-2017. Including newly available data from a surface network across China greatly improves our ability to constrain emissions at subnational and sectoral levels. Our results show that recent changes in China's methane emissions are linked to energy, agricultural, and environmental policies. We find contrasting methane emission trends in different regions attributed to coal mining, reflecting region-dependent responses to China's energy policy of closing small coal mines (decreases in Southwest) and consolidating large coal mines (increases in North). Coordinated production of coalbed methane and coal in southern Shanxi effectively decreases methane emissions, despite increased coal production there. We also detect unexpected increases from rice cultivation over East and Central China, which is contributed by enhanced rates of crop-residue application, a factor not accounted for in current inventories. Our work identifies policy drivers of recent changes in China's methane emissions, providing input to formulating methane policy toward its climate goal.

Funding

The study is supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2020YFA0607502) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42007198). H.B. and R.J.P. acknowledge sup-port by the European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative, the CopernicusC3S program, and the National Centre for Earth Observation funded by North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NE/R016518/1).

History

Citation

Zhang, Y., Fang, S., Chen, J., Lin, Y., Chen, Y., Liang, R., ... & Peng, S. (2022). Observed changes in China’s methane emissions linked to policy drivers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(41), e2202742119.

Author affiliation

National Centre for Earth Observation; School of Physics and Astronomy

Version

  • VoR (Version of Record)

Published in

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

Volume

119

Issue

41

Pagination

e2202742119

Publisher

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

issn

0027-8424

eissn

1091-6490

Acceptance date

2022-08-02

Copyright date

2022

Available date

2023-01-06

Language

eng

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