Carbon credits would enable restoration of UK saltmarshes say experts

Feasibility study backs introduction of UK Saltmarsh Code and carbon trading scheme

UK CENTRE FOR ECOLOGY & HYDROLOGY

 

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SALTMARSH IN THE RIBBLE ESTUARY

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CREDIT: STEFANIE CARTER

While the marshes may have meant danger for Pip in Great Expectations, these wetland habitats are important wildlife havens and mitigate climate change.

However, since Dickens’s celebrated novel was published in 1860, 85% of England’s saltmarsh has been lost as land has been claimed from the sea for agriculture, development or coastal flood defences. This has resulted in the release of greenhouse gases as well as the loss of biodiversity and natural buffer zones protecting properties and infrastructure from flooding.

The introduction of a carbon credit scheme, enabling companies to invest in the restoration of the UK’s degraded saltmarshes and voluntarily offset their greenhouse gas emissions, would be viable, a study led by the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) has found.

A partnership of scientists, charities and financial experts investigated the feasibility of a Saltmarsh Carbon Code, similar to the existing Peatland and Woodland codes, which would create a rigorous and scientifically-based voluntary certification standard for saltmarsh carbon to be marketed and traded by UK companies. This would assure buyers of carbon credits that the climate benefits being sold are real, quantifiable, additional and permanent.

The independent study, funded by a UK Government grant, found the introduction of a UK-wide code and carbon credit scheme would be feasible, and provide a pipeline for private investment to contribute to restoration projects, providing there was also some level of public financing in restoration projects.

So far, there has been relatively limited saltmarsh restoration in the UK, with the majority of schemes to date providing compensatory habitat for damage to designated sites due to development. However, there is an increasing interest by companies in carbon credits, which could accelerate saltmarsh restoration.

At present, the UK only has about 45,000 hectares of natural saltmarsh remaining. It is estimated that these accumulate up to around 700,000 tonnes of CO2 a year and the top 10cm of UK saltmarsh soil hold a total of around 2.3 million tonnes of carbon.

The total amount of carbon sequestration could increase with effective restoration, which usually involves managed realignment of coastline by deliberating reflooding land to restore a coastal wetland habitat. Saltmarshes trap and bury atmospheric carbon in the sediment beneath them and the vegetation that grows on them.

UKCEH wetland scientist Annette Burden led the study, which also involved WWT, RSPB, the University of St Andrews, Bangor University, SRUC, IUCN National Committee UK, Finance Earth and Jacobs.

She says: “Saltmarshes can play an important role in addressing the climate and biodiversity crises. Restoring sites across the country would support progress towards our net zero targets and provide vital habitat for wildlife, including overwintering migratory birds and commercially important fish species such as Seabass.

“The introduction of a Saltmarsh Code would pave the way for private investment to support projects that have some public financing but would not otherwise happen.”

Varying factors such as ground conditions, design complexity and compensation to landowners mean the cost of restoration can be unpredictable, even after restoration work has begun, which is why public financing is considered essential to cover some of the costs.

The research team looked at how much of the cost of the planned restoration of RSPB Old Hall Marshes in Essex could be covered by private investment and reviewed whether carbon finance could have raised enough funds for the managed realignment of WWT Steart Marshes in Somerset which was carried out in 2014.

The analysis found that with grants, the WWT Steart Marshes scheme would have been able to generate market rate returns for equity investors, and therefore attract sufficient investment to be financially viable. The project team, backed by further Environment Agency/Defra funding, is now developing a pilot Saltmarsh Code for further testing, with the hope that a saltmarsh carbon credits system could be introduced in 2025.

The feasibility study and more information about the ongoing work on the Saltmarsh Code are available on the UKCEH website. 

UKCEH has produced a podcast on the role and importance saltmarshes as part of its Counting the Earth series, as well as a saltmarsh factsheet.

Our scientists are establishing the first network of greenhouse gas monitoring stations on saltmarshes around the UK coast. These flux towers will measure how much carbon dioxide gas is captured from the atmosphere and stored as carbon within the saltmarsh ecosystem.

– Ends –

Media enquiries

For interviews and more information, please contact Simon Williams, Media Relations Officer at UKCEH, via simwil@ceh.ac.uk or +44 (0)7920 295384.

 

Notes to Editors

The Saltmarsh Code project was funded by a £100,000 grant from the Natural Environment Investment Readiness Fund (NEIRF), an initiative by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Environment Agency and Natural England which aims to stimulate private investment to improve and safeguard our natural environment. Ongoing work until March 2025 is funded by a £200,000 grant from the Environment Agency and Defra.

The UKCEH-led saltmarsh feasibility report suggested a price cap of £150 per saltmarsh carbon credit, which is considered by Finance Earth to be a conservative assumption, given the recent significant increases in voluntary carbon prices in the UK and globally.

The project team suggested the introduction of a UK-wide saltmarsh code, concluding the cost of adopting the VM0033 international verification scheme was likely to make most projects not financially viable.

Given the uncertainty over potential carbon accumulation rates for different saltmarsh sites, the researchers calculated a range of estimates for their two case studies.

About the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH)

The UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology is a world-leading centre for excellence in environmental sciences across water, land and air. We have a long history of monitoring and modelling environmental change.

UKCEH undertakes long-term national surveys of both natural and managed environments, focusing on carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. We make a major contribution to the UK national and international greenhouse gas emissions inventories, and we improve understanding of the role that land use has on emissions. We are contributing to the development of peatland and saltmarsh carbon codes – voluntary certification standards, enabling peatland and saltmarsh carbon to be marketed and purchased by private investors – thereby providing an income stream for the achievement of national net zero goals.

The UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology is a strategic delivery partner for the Natural Environment Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation.

www.ceh.ac.uk / @UK_CEH /  LinkedIn: UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology

 

US Doctors received approximately $12.1 billion from drug and device makers between 2013-2022

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PENN STATE

HERSHEY, Pa. — Despite evidence that financial conflicts of interest may influence medical practice and research and may erode patient trust in medical professionals, these relationships remain pervasive. According to a new analysis of the Open Payments platform, a database that tracks payments between physicians and industry, a team led by a Penn State researcher found that doctors received approximately $12.1 billion from drug and device makers between 2013 and 2022. 

Their findings published today (March 28) in JAMA. It’s one of the first studies to look at industry payments longitudinally and by specialty. 

“Overall, it shows that the Open Payments is not much more than a ledger sheet. Whether there is a need for deterrence or changed behaviors requires a broader conversation with public involvement,” said Andrew Foy, associate professor, Penn State College of Medicine and corresponding author on the paper.

In 2013, the Physician Payments Sunshine Act was passed in response to calls for greater transparency on financial relationships between physicians and teaching hospitals and the makers of drugs and medical devices. It led to the creation of the Open Payments database. Manufacturers are required to submit information on all payments and transfers of value.

For this paper, the team used data from Open Payments from 2013 to 2022. They included payments (both cash and non-cash equivalents) to physicians for consulting services, non-consulting services, food and beverages, travel and lodging, entertainment, education, gifts, grants, charitable contributions and honoraria. They analyzed data across 39 specialties. They also looked at within-specialty variation — the difference between the median amount paid to physicians in a specialty and the mean amount paid to the top 0.1% of physicians in that specialty. Lastly, they determined the 25 drugs and medical devices associated with the largest total payments.

The analysis showed that more than half of physicians received at least one payment and roughly 94% of payments were associated with one or more marketed medical product. A small percentage of physicians received the largest amounts, often exceeding $1 million. Orthopedic surgeons received the greatest sum of payments while pediatric surgeons received the least amount. 

Other authors on the paper are Ahmed Sayed from Ain Shams University, Joseph Ross from Yale School of Medicine, John Mandrola from Baptist Health, Lisa Soleymani Lehmann from Harvard Medical School.

This project was not supported by external grants or funds.

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JOURNAL

JAMA

DOI

10.1001/jama.2024.1989 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

ARTICLE TITLE

Industry Payments to US Physicians by Specialty and Product Type

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

28-Mar-2024

Industry payments to US physicians by specialty and product type

JAMA NETWORK

About The Study: From 2013 to 2022, U.S. physicians received $12.1 billion from industry. More than half of physicians received at least one payment. Payments varied widely between specialties and between physicians within the same specialty. A small number of physicians received the largest amounts, often exceeding $1 million, while the median physician received much less, typically less than a hundred dollars.  

Authors: Andrew J. Foy, M.D., of the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, Pennsylvania, is the corresponding author.

To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/

(doi:10.1001/jama.2024.1989)

Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

Embed this link to provide your readers free access to the full-text article This link will be live at the embargo time https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/10.1001/jama.2024.1989?guestAccessKey=09640006-76f3-4829-94b9-b6839dfb0eb8&utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_content=tfl&utm_term=032824

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JOURNAL

JAMA

 

Manganese plays a surprising role in soil carbon sequestration

Exchangeable manganese, like that emitted by industry, cuts carbon storage in boreal forests

DUKE UNIVERSITY

 

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A SCENE FROM THE BOREAL FOREST OF THE DAXING'AN MOUNTAINS IN CHINA.

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CREDIT: JINGHUA YU

DURHAM, N.C. – Manganese in the soil of boreal forests has been found to work against the carbon storage capacity of these crucial northern habitats.

Located predominantly in cold regions at high latitude, boreal forests are estimated to store nearly 30 percent of the world’s soil carbon, making them the world’s largest reservoir of land-based carbon. This stored carbon is found mostly in the forests’ humus layer, which contains decomposed leaves and other organic matter.

A global, long-term study led by Duke University researchers has found that higher levels of manganese in this layer stimulated decomposition of soil organic matter, and released more carbon dioxide than did those forest plots with less or no manganese. The work appeared March 19  in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

“Conventional wisdom is these forests are like a global vault of carbon, where carbon is put into the vault versus taken out,” said William H. Schlesinger, professor emeritus at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment and study co-author. “These findings reveal a crack in the vault, where enough manganese over time stimulates the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which has implications for climate mitigation efforts and the global carbon cycle,” said Schlesinger. 

Certain industrial processes, such as metal smelting or combustion of manganese-containing fuels, can release airborne manganese which is later deposited in soils downwind. 

This is one of many human activities, such as the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, and land-use changes, that have disturbed the natural carbon cycle, leading to an increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations that contribute to global warming and climate change. 

“Carbon inventorying is still an evolving science,” said Yunyu Zhang, lead author and graduate student from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. “It is essential to figure out which factors regulate this huge carbon pool [in boreal forests’ soil], especially given continuous… industrialization.”  

Researchers analyzed data from boreal forests worldwide, and fertilized soil with manganese over 14 years (2009-2023) in China’s Daxing’an Mountains. Results showed the level of exchangeable manganese -- the part of manganese that plants can use as nutrients -- determined how much carbon was stored in boreal forest soil. After four years, carbon storage on plots fertilized with manganese fell by nearly 13 percent, meaning more carbon was released into the atmosphere.  

“To develop effective and sustainable strategies, it is critical to understand complex interactions between trace nutrients and carbon storage,” Zhang said. “It is even more important to predict how those interactions work in the long term, considering the impact of human activities.”    

Schlesinger emphasized the need for further research and action, noting how the study’s findings highlight the importance of soil nutrient dynamics, such as the level of exchangeable manganese, in climate change mitigation efforts.  

He urged further study of the role of manganese not only in soil, but also in the air, on land-based carbon emissions, the boreal forest ecosystem, and climate mitigation.

“There’s no proverbial foolproof vault or absolute forest sink,” Schlesinger said. “We need integrated approaches to land management and climate mitigation. Climate has traditionally been considered a major factor in carbon storage, but we now see how manganese is also a key indicator, something that has long been overlooked and underexamined.” 

The National Natural Science Foundation of China and Chinese Academy of Sciences co-funded the study.

CITATION: “Exchangeable Manganese Regulates Carbon Storage in the Humus Layer of Boreal Forests,” Yunyu Zhang, Sarah E. Hobbie, William H. Schlesinger, Bjorn Berg, Tao Sun, Jiaojun Zhu. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, March 19, 2024. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2318382121  

Online: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2318382121

 

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JOURNAL

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI

10.1073/pnas.2318382121 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Exchangeable Manganese Regulates Carbon Storage in the Humus Layer of Boreal Forests

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

19-Mar-2024

 

Blueprint for mandating indoor air quality for public buildings in form of standards

Peer-Reviewed Publication

QUEENSLAND UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

 

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PROFESSOR MORAWSKA IS LEADING INTERNATIONAL EXPERTS PRESENTING A BLUEPRINT FOR NATIONAL INDOOR QUALITY STANDARDS FOR PUBLIC BUILDINGS.

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CREDIT: QUT

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• International experts set out standards for monitoring three key indoor pollutants
• Adequate ventilation for number of occupants and activities must be taken into account
• Carbon dioxide and PM2.5 particles and carbon monoxide are three pollutants requiring monitoring to assess healthy

  The experts addressed setting standards for three key indoor pollutants – carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), PM2.5 which are particles so small they can lodge deep in the lungs and enter the bloodstream - and ventilation rate.

  Distinguished Professor Morawska, from the QUT School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, internationally known, among others, for leading the appeal to the WHO to recognise the airborne transmission spread of the Covid-19 virus early in the pandemic, has continued to raise the importance of adequate indoor air quality for public spaces.

  “M­­­ost countries do not have any legislated indoor air quality (IAQ) performance standards for public spaces that address concentration levels of IA pollutants,” Professor Morawska said.

  “To have practical value, IAQ standards must be implementable by designing new buildings that are built, operated and maintained to standard or retrofitted to meet the standards.

  “While there is a cost in the short term, the social and economic benefits to public health, wellbeing and productivity will likely far outweigh the investment in cost in achieving clean indoor air.”

  Professor Morawska said CO2 sensors were readily available, inexpensive and robust and should be used as a proxy to measure pathogens and CO2 during human occupancy in a public space.

  “CO2 can serve as a proxy for occupant-emitted contaminants and pathogens and to effectively assess ventilation quality,” she said.

  “We propose a CO2 concentration level of 800ppm with the proviso that outdoor concentration is used as a baseline and recognition of the fact that outdoor concentrations are increasing due to emissions to the atmosphere that outweigh removal.

  “Another key indicator of air quality we addressed is the amount of PM2.5 and we propose the WHO air quality guidelines as a basis for indoor air quality standards but with a 1-hour averaging time, as the 24 hours of the WHO AQG is much longer than people usually spend in public places.”

  Professor Morawska said mechanical ventilation systems should remove and dilute human-emitted and other indoor-generated pollutants at a higher rate than their production so that they would not accumulate in indoor air.

  “The technologies for measuring ventilation already exist in most modern mechanically ventilated buildings but monitoring ventilation rates in terms of clean air delivered to the space requires us to consider the number of people and their activities in the space to ensure adequate IAQ.

  “A practical ventilation standard could be air from outside (assumed to be clean), or clean recirculated air to the entire occupied zone and with airflow not directed from one person to another.

  “Additional measures in support of ventilation, such as air cleaning and disinfection, could greatly reduce the need to increase the outdoor air supply, which carries a heavy energy demand.

  “Filtering recirculated air is an effective way to reduce concentration of, and thus our exposure to, airborne particulate matter, allergens and pathogens.”

  Mandating indoor air quality standards in public buildings was published in Science.

  The expert contributors were  Professor Morawska, Professor Belinda Bennett, and Professor Amanda Kennedy, QUT, Australia; Associate Professor Joseph Allen, Harvard University, USA; Professor William Bahnfleth, The Pennsylvania State University, USA; Professor Philomena M. Bluyssen and Professor Atze Boerstra, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands; Professor Giorgio Buonanno, University of Cassino and Southern Lazio, Cassino, Italy; Professor Junji Cao, Chinese Academy of Science, China; Professor Stephanie J. Dancer, Edinburgh Napier University, UK; Professor Andres Floto and Dr Charles Haworth, University of Cambridge, UK; Francesco Franchimon, Franchimon ICM, The Netherlands;  Professor Trish Greenhalgh, University of Oxford, UK;  Jaap Hogeling, International Standards at ISSO, The Netherlands;  Associate Professor Christina Isaxon and Associate Professor Aneta Wierzbicka, Lund University, Sweden;  Professor Jose L. Jimenez and Professor Shelly L. Miller, University of Colorado, USA; Professor Prashant Kumar, University of Surrey, UK; Professor Jarek Kurnitski, Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia;  Professor Yuguo Li, University of Hong Kong, China;  Associate Professor Marcel Loomans, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands;  Professor Guy Marks, University of New South Wales;  Professor Linsey C. Marr, Virginia Tech, USA, Professor Livio Mazzarella, Politecnico di Milano, Italy; Professor Arsen Krikor Melikov and Professor Pawel Wargocki, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark;  Professor Donald K. Milton, University of Maryland;  Professor Jason Monty, University of Melbourne, Australia; Associate Professor Peter V. Nielsen, Aalborg University, Denmark; Professor Catherine Noakes, University of Leeds, UK; Professor Jordan Peccia, Yale University, USA; Professor Kimberly A. Prather, University of California, USA; Professor Xavier Querol, Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research, Spain; Professor Tunga Salthammer, Fraunhofer WKI, Germany; Professor Chandra Sekhar  and Associate Professor Kwok Wai Tam, National University of Singapore, Singapore; Associate Professor Olli Seppänen, Aalto University Finland;  Professor Shin-ichi Tanabe, Waseda University, Japan; Associate Professor Julian W. Tang, University of Leicester, UK;  Associate Professor Raymond Tellier, McGill University, Canada; Professor Maosheng Yao,, Peking University, China.

  ventilation levels

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JOURNAL

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.adl0677 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Commentary/editorial

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Mandating indoor air quality for public buildings

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

28-Mar-2024

 

U.S. landfills emit significant amounts of methane

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE (AAAS)

A new survey finds that United States open landfills are emitting significant amounts of methane, one of the most important greenhouse gases causing global climate change. The study by Daniel Cusworth and colleagues was conducted using airborne imaging spectrometers that observe methane emissions and is the largest airborne or ground-based survey of U.S. landfills to date, representing 20% of the nation’s landfills. Among the 250 sites across 18 states surveyed between 2018 and 2022, the researchers were able to detect significant point-source methane emissions at 52% of sites. This percentage “far exceed[s] the point-source detection rate from other methane emission sectors,” Cusworth et al. conclude, suggesting that solid waste is an important contributor to greenhouse gas emission in the U.S. The findings also uncover a large discrepancy in the emission estimates calculated by airborne detection and more traditional estimates made by walking over landfill sites. On average, aerial emission rates were a factor 2.7 higher than those reported to the U.S. Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, the researchers note. Point-source emissions are emission “hotspots” confined to a local area, as compared to emissions spread over a broad area of the landfill. Point-source emissions are important to regulate because they often represent a significant emission source and are more likely to be linked to the dynamic operations of a landfill. The point-source emissions observed in the study sometimes persisted for months or even years. The researchers even found a distinct population of landfills where point-source activity continued almost throughout the entire study period. “This long-duration population represents more than 60% of all landfills, and 87% of all quantified emissions,” the researchers write.

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JOURNAL

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.adi7735 

ARTICLE TITLE

Quantifying methane emissions from United States landfills

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

29-Mar-2024

Study finds landfill point source emissions have an outsized impact and opportunity to tackle U.S. waste methane

Largest measurement-based landfill methane assessment to date identifies major emission sources missing from traditional accounting that can be prioritized for mitigation

Peer-Reviewed Publication

CARBON MAPPER

 

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METHANE PLUMES OBSERVED BY CARBON MAPPER DURING AERIAL SURVEYS AT A LANDFILL IN GEORGIA.

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CREDIT: CARBON MAPPER

 

Study finds landfill point source emissions have an outsized impact and opportunity to tackle U.S. waste methane 

Largest measurement-based landfill methane assessment to date identifies major emission sources missing from traditional accounting that can be prioritized for mitigation

March 28, 2024—Pasadena, CA—A new study, led by Carbon Mapper scientists alongside researchers from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Arizona State University, University of Arizona, Scientific Aviation, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, provides the largest comprehensive assessment of hundreds of U.S. landfills using direct observations through airborne surveys. The study reveals the outsized impact of landfill point source emissions, which are responsible for a disproportionately large share of pollution from this important sector. It also sheds light on potential gaps in traditional model-based emission accounting methods that may benefit from sustained direct measurement using emerging surface-, air-, and space-based monitoring technologies. 

“Addressing these high methane sources and mitigating persistent landfill emissions offers a strong potential for climate benefit,” said Dr. Dan Cusworth, Carbon Mapper Program Scientist and lead author on the paper. “The ability to precisely identify leaks is an efficient way to make quick progress on methane reduction at landfills, which could be critical for slowing global warming.”

Landfills are considered the third largest source of human-caused methane emissions in the U.S., responsible for 14.3% of methane in 2021 and emitting the equivalent to the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from nearly 23.1 million gasoline-powered passenger vehicles driven for one year, according to the EPA. Despite the climate impact of landfills, societal understanding of these emissions is largely limited to model-based estimates, and the sector remains under-addressed compared to other big methane sources like oil and gas. Traditional surface-based surveys with handheld methane sensors provide an incomplete picture of emissions. This is due to factors like limited access to many sections of active landfills as well as logistical and personnel safety reasons.

To help fill these gaps, Carbon Mapper and research partners used advanced aircraft to conduct the largest direct measurement-based survey of active municipal solid waste landfills to date from 2018 through 2022. This included aerial surveys, led by Carbon Mapper and Scientific Aviation, of over 200 active U.S. landfills that participate in the U.S. Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (20% of approximately 1,200 reported open landfills). Surveys led by Carbon Mapper utilized partner aircraft—including NASA JPL’s AVIRIS-NG and Arizona State University’s Global Airborne Observatory with the Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science.

Key findings
Evaluating this large data set yielded insights that site owners and operators, policymakers, regulators, and civil society can use to better assess and act on landfill emissions. 

(1) Landfill point source emissions have an outsized methane impact. Fifty-two percent (52%) of surveyed landfills had observable point source emissions. This far exceeds the 0.2% to 1% detection rate observed for super-emitters from surveyed oil and gas infrastructure in California and the Permian Basin. 

(2) Landfill point source emissions are generally more persistent compared to their counterparts in oil and gas production. For those landfills with observed emissions, 60% had emissions that persisted over months or years. These persistent emissions totaled 87% of all quantified emissions in the study. Comparatively, the majority of methane super-emitters in the oil and gas sector are related to irregular, short-duration events.

(3) There are significant gaps in landfill leak detection and quantification protocols. Current walking surveys with hand-held sensors are ineffective in completely sampling the landfill surface and may miss high point source activity that can dominate the facility’s emissions while remaining undetected for extended periods. Advanced monitoring strategies, such as remote sensing from satellites, aircraft and drones, can provide a more accurate picture of landfill methane emissions. When combined with improved ground-based measurements, remote sensing can provide consistent, comprehensive measurements to better inform models, guide mitigation efforts and verify emission reductions.

(4) A robust dataset of quantified emissions at U.S. landfills finds little agreement with national reporting frameworks. A misalignment between observed and reported emissions indicates that current methods used to report facility emissions, such as the EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP), are missing or misrepresenting large sources of methane. On average, aerial emission rates were 1.4 times higher than GHGRP. This presents a significant difference between observed and reported emissions, supported by the largest airborne or ground-based survey of U.S. landfills to date.

Looking forward, this study reveals the need for a comprehensive monitoring strategy to measure, quantify and act on methane emissions at landfills more effectively. Resources like the Carbon Mapper Coalition satellite program can offer efficient solutions for measurement challenges. The coalition’s first Tanager satellite, which is launching in 2024 as part of a public-private partnership between Carbon Mapper, Planet Labs PBC, NASA JPL and others, is uniquely designed and optimized to detect methane at landfills. Carbon Mapper is also conducting a multi-year initiative to assess thousands of high-emitting solid waste sites globally, using remote sensing technologies to establish a methane emissions baseline for managed landfills and unmanaged dumps. This includes U.S. landfill aerial campaigns planned for 2024. 

Carbon Mapper’s methane data is publicly available on its portal to maximize the availability of emissions data for a wide range of operators across many jurisdictions, including major waste management companies and local city and county governments. This helps empower them to mitigate emissions and make informed decisions that maximize methane capture. The data is also made available for policymakers, regulators, community groups and others to support science-based decision making.

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About Carbon Mapper

Carbon Mapper is a nonprofit based in Pasadena, CA with the mission to drive greenhouse gas emissions reductions by making methane and carbon dioxide data accessible and actionable. They focus on filling gaps in the emerging ecosystem of methane and CO2 monitoring systems by delivering data at facility scale that is precise, timely, and accessible to empower decision making and direct mitigation action. The organization leads a public-private coalition that is developing and deploying a constellation of satellites capable of detecting, quantifying, and verifying methane emissions worldwide. Data from these satellites will offer the next major step in scaling up the organization’s robust data portal featuring thousands of direct observations of global methane and CO2 super-emitters. Learn more at carbonmapper.org, view data at data.carbonmapper.org, and follow us on Twitter @carbonmapper.

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JOURNAL

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.adi7735 

ARTICLE TITLE

Quantifying Methane Emissions from United States Landfills

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

28-Mar-2024

Revolving Door Spins as Ex-Fossil Fuel Regulator Joins Carbon Capture Firm

"This move is intended to make sure policymakers continue to make bad bets on carbon capture ever working," said one critic.


Neil Chatterjee, then-chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, spoke at a summit in New York City on September 23, 2019.
(Photo: Riccardo Savi/Getty Images for Concordia Summit)

"Carbon capture has a long history of failure in the real world, but these companies have had great success in securing billions in government handouts."

JESSICA CORBETT
Mar 27, 2024
COMMON DREAMS

CarbonCapture Inc. on Wednesday announced the appointment of Neil Chatterjee to its board of directors—sparking fresh criticism of technology to capture and store carbon dioxide, the former U.S. regulator, and the revolving door between government and industry.

Chatterjee was appointed to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in 2017 by then-President Donald Trump, now the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Chatterjee served as FERC's chair twice before his term expired in 2021. Prior to joining the commission, he advised U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on energy.

"After greenlighting oil and gas expansion at FERC, Chatterjee is now capitalizing off of attempts to undo those harms," Hannah Story Brown, a senior researcher in climate and governance at the Revolving Door Project, told Common Dreams. "It would have been far less costly to the public interest and the public purse if Chatterjee had helped stanch the flow of carbon pollution into our atmosphere when he was in the position to."

"After greenlighting oil and gas expansion at FERC, Chatterjee is now capitalizing off of attempts to undo those harms."

Food & Water Watch policy director Jim Walsh said that "the so-called 'carbon capture' industry relies on billions of dollars in giveaways from the federal government, so it should not be a surprise that a company like this would add a Beltway insider to its board of directors."

CarbonCapture Inc.'s statement on Chatterjee celebrates his "deep ties in Washington and across the industry," saying that "in his time on Capitol Hill and at FERC, he established a reputation as a bipartisan operator who built alliances and cut through red tape."

The company's CEO, Adrian Corless, said that Chatterjee's "deep understanding of the energy landscape in the U.S. and abroad will be incredibly important as we source large amounts of clean energy in the face of grid expansion challenges and bottlenecks."

The firm builds "deeply modular" direct air capture (DAC) machines, which "use solid sorbents that soak up atmospheric CO2 when cooled and release concentrated CO2 when heated," as its website details. "The captured CO2 can then be permanently stored underground or used to make synthetic fuels, low-carbon concrete, carbon black, or other industrial products that require clean CO2."

Stressing the need to "decarbonize the atmosphere as quickly as possible," Chatterjee said Wednesday that "CarbonCapture's groundbreaking, modular direct air capture machines have put our country on the fast track to scale a proven solution at the speed and cost necessary to make a meaningful impact."

Food & Water Watch agrees that the warming world requires swift and sweeping action on planet-heating pollution. Along with advocating for a rapid and just global phaseout of fossil fuels, the group prioritizes "calling foul on fake solutions" to the climate emergency.

"The fossil fuel industries are eager to tout carbon waste sequestration and direct air capture because they bolster the dominance of dirty energy sources like oil and gas," Walsh told Common Dreams. "This is why they are called 'false solutions'—they delay the necessary actions to get off fossil fuels."

Citing an International Energy Agency analyst in an article about the "major hurdles" that remain as DAC ramps up, Yale Environment 360reported last week that "about three-quarters of all globally captured CO2 (which comes mainly from industrial flue stacks) is currently being used for enhanced oil recovery," which involves injecting CO2 into wells to bury it and extract more oil.

As a pair of Walsh's colleagues detailed for Food & Water Watch's website last year, other issues with DAC include the technology's high energy needs, toxic solvents, and risky storage options.

"Carbon capture has a long history of failure in the real world, but these companies have had great success in securing billions in government handouts," Walsh said. In terms of Chatterjee's appointment, he added that "this move is intended to make sure policymakers continue to make bad bets on carbon capture ever working."

As Story Brown pointed out, "Neil Chatterjee's prototypical spin of the revolving door, moving from pro-industry regulator to regulated industry, comes with added irony."

"As a regulator, he positioned himself as preferring market-based 'solutions' over government mandates, subsidies, and regulations," she explained. "But all that skepticism apparently vanished when he joined the carbon capture business, whose only hope of profitability comes from government subsidies like those in the Inflation Reduction Act."

Corless was among those who welcomed what Timecalled a "bonanza for the carbon capture industry" in the 2022 legislation. Shortly before President Joe Biden signed the bill, the CEO said that "it's going to make it easy for us to raise the capital to build the project earlier and to build it faster."

However, it's not just the government that is bankrolling CarbonCapture Inc. and similar ventures, as Story Brown noted.

"Neil Chatterjee hasn't left the lure of market magic behind," she said. "His firm has pre-sold millions in carbon removal credits so that energy-guzzling firms from Amazon to Aramco can greenwash their operations."