China’s Anthropogenic Methane Emissions: A Review of Current Bottom-Up Inventories

Speaker: ZHANG Bo

Prof. ZHANG Bo, Visiting Scholar, Harvard-China Project; Associate Professor, State Key Laboratory of Coal Resources and Safe Mining, China University of Mining & Technology (Beijing)

Abstract:  Methane (CH4) is the second ranking anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG), with a global warming potential (GWP) 28 times greater than that of carbon dioxide (CO2) on a mass basis. In contrast to the ever-increasing focus at China’s CO2 emissions, its CH4 emissions have received little attention. Yet China is believed to be the world’s largest CH4 emitter, contributing more to climate change than the total CO2 emitted by many developed countries. Increasing CH4 emissions may be quietly undermining China’s efforts to mitigate its total GHG emissions. This seminar will present an overview of bottom-up estimation of China’s CH4 emissions, including recent research advances and the limits of current understanding.