Atmospheric methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, is rising at an accelerated rate, and is currently contributing ~0.5°C to global warming. Achieving any of our climate targets depends on quickly reversing this trend. The primary driver of increasing atmospheric methane concentration is anthropogenic emissions, from fossil fuels, agriculture, and waste. Atmospheric methane levels are also driven by natural methane emissions, already rising, and its atmospheric and terrestrial sinks which may change over time.

We must do everything we can to reduce anthropogenic methane emissions and atmospheric methane levels. Despite methane causing one third of anthropogenic global warming, methane mitigation efforts currently receive less receive less than 4% of international climate philanthropy. Reducing the climate impact of methane as much and as rapidly as possible will take a portfolio of efforts, all of which need dramatically more support: 

1. Deploying available anthropogenic emissions reductions strategies alongside new incentives, regulations, education, and financing.
2. Innovating new strategies to reduce anthropogenic emissions.
3. Researching evolving atmospheric and biological sinks and potential strategies to mitigate increasing natural methane emissions including (but not limited to) atmospheric methane removal.

Rapidly expanding work on each of these areas is critical. Outside of these RFPs, efforts by Spark and other leaders in the field are focused on methane emissions reductions. However, research towards understanding potential atmospheric methane removal approaches is particularly nascent and will take years. Additional support now will be transformative to scientific understanding of future methane sinks and potential atmospheric methane removal approaches, and timelines on which approaches could become available. None of these approaches are currently ready for deployment.

Methane has about a decade-long atmospheric lifetime due to various methane sinks, including atmospheric processes and bacterial consumption. Better understanding of methane sink dynamics and possible ways of augmenting them may offer future pathways to shorten methane’s atmospheric lifetime and help address climate-change-induced natural methane emissions and mitigate overall climate risk. Approaches to enhance methane’s sinks include harnessing methanotrophs, atmospheric radicals, or catalysts to break down methane. However, much more scientific research is needed for each of these approaches.