What’s the challenge?

As organic waste decomposes in landfill, it releases methane, a greenhouse gas much stronger than carbon dioxide (CO2) in heating the atmosphere. Reducing methane emissions is a crucial and urgent aspect of non-CO2 mitigation efforts to ensure we stay on track with the Paris climate goals.

Global warming potential (GWP) measures how much climate impact a greenhouse gas has compared to CO2. It’s typically measured over a 100-year timeframe, although other timeframes can also be used. Methane’s GWP is up to 30 times more harmful over a 100-year timeframe, but increases significantly to 81 over a 20-year timeframe, showing its powerful short-term impact on the climate.

The increasing amount of municipal waste worldwide leads to more methane emissions, a serious challenge in fighting the climate crisis. We need to manage these emissions and address their impact on global warming, air quality, groundwater sources and human health.

We need quick and effective solutions to capture and convert methane into less harmful CO2 and useful energy. Given its high short-term impact on the climate, reducing methane quickly reduces the rate of temperature increase, providing a critical window to implement longer-term climate strategies.