About 90 tonnes of methane per hour were released from the mine in January, when the gas was first detected at its source, according to GHGSat, a commercial satellite tracking company based in Canada. If maintained for a year, it will produce enough gas to power 2.4 million homes. More recently, the mine appears to have leaked at a slower rate, about a third of the highest rate recorded in January, but the leak is believed to have been active for at least six months before the January survey. The leak, which comes from the Raspadskaya mine in the Kemerovo region, Russia’s largest coal mine, is about 50 percent larger than any other leak seen by GHGSat since launching its global satellite tracking in 2016. The company believes that is greater than any leak however it is detected in a single source. Brody Wight, director of energy, landfill and mining at GHGSat, said methane was an often overlooked side effect of coal mining that added to the climatic effects of coal burning. The Raspadskaya leak will add about 25% to the greenhouse gas emissions from the combustion of any coal produced by the mine, he estimated. “We are seeing an increase in methane from this site in general, which could be a result of increased coal production, which is linked to global trends in coal use,” he said. Russia is one of the largest sources of methane in the world for the extraction of fossil fuels. The country’s natural gas infrastructure, including production facilities and pipelines, is clearly leaking despite calls to the government to take action. Paul Bledsoe, a former adviser to Bill Clinton at the White House and now at the Institute for Progressive Policy in Washington, D.C., said: month brings news. evidence that Russia is hiding the most massive and catastrophic methane leaks in the world. Putin is desperately hiding these huge emissions so that he can continue to take advantage of Russian coal, oil and gas sales and finance his war regime. “But those nations like China that continue to buy Putin’s oil and gas are just as inciting the climate and crime of war.” All underground coal mines produce methane, which can cause explosions if it accumulates. An explosion at the Raspadskaya mine in 2010 killed 66 people. Subscribe to the First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7 p.m. BST Methane ventilation can be done for safety reasons. However, there are ways to capture methane when it is produced at a high rate or by aeration through oxidation, so as to cause less damage to the climate. Methane is about 80 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, although it decomposes in the atmosphere for about 20 years. In February, the International Energy Agency warned that most countries reported little methane emissions and that the actual amount released into the atmosphere was much higher than we thought. Recent studies have shown that cutting methane could be one of the fastest ways to contain global warming, and that sharp cuts could now prevent a rise of about 0.25 C by 2050. Durwood Zaelke, president of the Washington-based Institute for Governance, said the Raspadskaya leak showed an urgent need for action. “It is crucial to set up a comprehensive methane satellite tracking system. “We also need to develop a system of incentives and sanctions that can rectify these emissions by focusing first on the transmitters,” he said. The ILO also found that at current high gas prices, the cost of capturing methane was much less than the value of using or selling it as a fuel source, which should give companies and governments an incentive to commit to gas instead of ventilating or launching. At the Cop26 Climate Summit in Glasgow last November, more than 100 countries agreed to reduce methane emissions by at least 30% by 2030. However, Russia was not among them. GHGSat said it measured 13 distinct methane clouds, ranging in size from 658 to 17,994 kilograms per hour, from the mine. The discovery was made on January 22, but the company took the time to verify its findings and contact the operator of the mine, who did not respond.
