As Australia refines its approach to climate action, a mining and minerals expert has called for a focus beyond CO2 reduction – into methane reduction.
Hatch is an award-winning multidisciplinary leader in engineering, operational and development projects in the metals, energy, and infrastructure industries, that is passionately committed to the pursuit of a better world through positive change.
The United Nations Environment Programme stated in a recent report that methane emissions are driving climate change.
This gas has accounted for roughly 30 per cent of global warming since pre-industrial times and is today proliferating at the most rapid rate since records began.
“The amount of methane released into the atmosphere from Australian coal mining activities makes up around 6 per cent of Australia’s national emissions, but there are a number of ways in which this methane – known as fugitive methane in the mining context – can be treated to both reduce emissions and create valuable by-products, such as fuel,” Hatch managing director of Australia and Asia Jan Kwak said.
Despite methane accounting for just 6 per cent of Australia’s total emissions, fugitive methane is 80 times more potent in warming the atmosphere than CO2 over a 20-year period.
In addition, while methane is only in the atmosphere for a couple of decades, compared with around 1000 years for CO2, the impact it has on global warming over that short period is far more pronounced.
Hatch has studied the impact of fugitive methane from coal mining and has identified a number of highly effective options that can be taken pre-mining, during mining, and post-mining to drastically reduce the amount of fugitive methane escaping into the atmosphere.
For more information, visit Hatch’s website.