Pandemic won’t ease global warming, Stanford University warns as farming causes methane levels to reach new record

The pandemic won’t ease global warming, Stanford University warns as farming has caused methane levels to reach a new record.

While environmental campaigners rejoiced at the reduction in carbon dioxide emissions during lockdown, as people ceased to travel, scientists have warned that the skyrocketing methane levels are unlikely to have been impacted. This is because the activities which cause methane to be released into the atmosphere, such as farming, have not ceased.

Professor Rob Jackson, an environmental researcher at Stanford, who led the study, said: "There's no chance that methane emissions dropped as much as carbon dioxide emissions because of the virus.

"We're still heating our homes and buildings, and agriculture keeps growing."

Global emissions of the greenhouse gas have hit a record high, driven primarily by growth of emissions from coal mining, oil and natural gas production, cattle and sheep ranching, and landfills. Scientists warn that if it continues at this rate, the Earth will heat up by between 3-4 degrees before the end of the century, which will cause natural disasters and famines across the globe.

The research, published in  Earth System Science Data and Environmental Research Letters by researchers with the Global Carbon Project, found that annual methane emissions are up 9 percent, or 50 million tons per year, from the early 2000s, when methane concentrations in the atmosphere were relatively stable. This is equivalent to putting 350 million more cars on the world's roads or doubling the total emissions of Germany or France.

Methane is 28 times more powerful than carbon dioxide at trapping heat over a 100-year span, so reducing the emissions is vital if global warming is to be slowed.

Europe managed to be the only region where methane emissions have decreased over the last two decades, in part by tamping down emissions from chemical manufacturing and growing food more efficiently.

"Policies and better management have reduced emissions from landfills, manure and other sources here in Europe. People are also eating less beef and more poultry and fish," said Marielle Saunois of the Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin in France, who co-authored the study.

However, this was overshadowed by countries including the United States of America, which have hugely increased their use of natural gas over the decade, causing methane to leak into the atmosphere. In other countries, there has also been an increase in the consumption of beef. Emissions from cattle are almost as large as those from the fossil fuel industry for methane.