Methane is a climate villain the world is failing to tackle

Every day, two satellites crisscross the planet from north to south around 16 times, taking hundreds of photos. They’re hunting something invisible and odorless, but which has an outsized impact on our lives: methane.

The satellites are run by Carbon Mapper, a non-profit environmental organization that patrols the globe remotely looking for methane “super-emitters,” the small number of sources — from oil and gas operations to landfills — that make up a big percentage of total methane pollution.

In the US, Carbon Mapper satellites have identified oil and gas sites with strong evidence of persistent methane pollution. So far this year, Orla, Texas, tops its list with eight large plumes recorded, followed by Stanton, Texas, and Ringold, Louisiana.

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Mega-leaks are not just happening in the US, they are a global problem, from Turkmenistan to Venezuela. They used to be invisible — under-monitored and underestimated — but these plumes are now increasingly spotted from space as high-resolution satellites pinpoint them with precision.

Carbon dioxide is the number one driver of climate change, but methane is a much more powerful planet-heating gas in the short term — trapping roughly 80 times more heat over a 20-year time frame. The super-pollutant is responsible for about 30% of today’s warming.

If humanity is to have any chance of keeping a livable planet, tackling methane offers one of the fastest ways to reduce global temperatures. “Any reductions that we make today on methane, we could see (the benefits of) within our lifetime,” said Dan Cusworth, vice president of science at Carbon Mapper. “It makes a lot of sense to go after it.”

Yet global methane levels continue to rise, and experts say efforts to tackle the crisis are fragmented and insufficient to meet the urgency of the situation. Worse still, some countries are backtracking.

About 40% of methane comes from natural sources like wetlands. The rest is produced by human activities, including oil, gas and coal production, farming and landfills.

Global methane levels have been rising over recent years, reaching unprecedented highs in 2025. China was the biggest methane polluter last year, mostly due to its coal mining operations, followed by the US and Russia, according to a recent IEA report.

Around 35% of human-produced methane comes from the fossil fuel industry, and there is “still no sign” of it falling, the report found.

The good news is that it’s not that hard to tackle. Technology exists to cut around 70% of emissions from fossil fuel production, according to the IEA. What’s more, methane can be harnessed for value — it’s a potential fuel.

“This is one of the ironies,” said Edward Parson, an environmental law professor at UCLA. “If you’re in the oil and gas production business, methane is a potential product.” It’s a particularly attractive prospect as the Iran war pushes up oil and gas prices.

Yet, governments have recently moved to undo or postpone action on the super-pollutant.

Last month, the Trump administration announced plans to significantly weaken Biden-era rules targeting the amount of methane the oil and gas industry can produce — these were projected to have cut the sector’s pollution by 80% through 2038.

The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed to significantly weaken these rules, including eliminating the “Super Emitter Program” — an initiative to detect, investigate and fix large methane releases or leaks — and relaxing rules for “marginal” wells which don’t produce much oil and gas but do produce a lot of methane pollution.

The EPA is selling the rollback as an economic boon, saying it will save $45 billion in consumer and business costs and casting it as the latest salvo in President Trump’s pledge to “end the war on oil and natural gas.”

Critics pushed back strongly. “The American people pick up the tab three times over,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat representing Rhode Island. “Higher energy bills from wasted natural gas; higher health care costs, as the fumes pollute our air; and higher climate change costs through higher insurance premiums and more burned and flooded homes.”

The US is not alone in reducing ambition. The European Union voted last month to approve a three-year delay for rules requiring foreign oil, gas and coal importers to monitor and report their methane pollution. It’s not a trivial move, said Mark Brownstein, senior vice president of energy at the Environmental Defense Fund. “Every year of delay comes with real cost.”

UCLA’s Parson puts the blame for backtracking seen this year on intensifying pressure from fossil fuel interests. “It’s an indication of the determination and muscle of the industry to fight on every front to resist any regulatory restrictions,” he said.

Holly Hopkins, a vice president at the American Petroleum Institute, which represents the US oil and gas sector, said the industry “is working every day to reduce methane emissions while meeting growing demand for affordable energy.” The API “supports the direct regulation of methane emissions” and is working with the administration on a “balanced, workable approach,” she added.

Even as methane pollution increases, there are some positive signs.

Oil and gas production has been rising globally, yet the industry’s methane pollution has remained fairly flat. Some companies are doing good job of accurately measuring, monitoring, reporting and reducing methane pollution, Brownstein said. Although, he added, “you’re not seeing that level of progress uniformly across the entire industry.”

There have also been fewer super-emitting events from countries such as Argentina and Algeria, as well as signs that growth in China’s coal mine methane pollution might be slowing, according to the IEA.

And in the US, while the federal government may be undoing methane regulations, several states, including California and New Mexico, have their own regulations.

Still, many want far more ambition. “Having really strong government leadership is so critical to this,” Carbon Mapper’s Cusworth said.

Changing industry norms is also key, according to Brownstein. Companies have a responsibility to manage their methane pollution, “because a lot of this has an economic payback,” he said.

As the planet heats up and enters a new era of climate extremes, from deadly flooding to brutal heat waves, the spotlight should be on methane, according to Brownstein. “Virtually the only thing that we can do to lessen the frequency and severity of events like that is reduce methane emissions,” he said.

While the world decides how fast it wishes to tackle this super-pollutant, satellites will continue to orbit the Earth making clear the scale of the problem.

It can be frustrating, Cusworth said. “You see a lot of things that could be fixed relatively easily,” he said, “sometimes it’s like I want to get on a plane with a wrench, go out and fix it.”