Does Methane Gas Contribute To Climate Change? 

While many homeowners today are making changes towards all-electric homes, natural gas continues to be the cheapest energy option in the United States. Over the past decade (and especially during the Obama years), US energy policy has been focused on shifting towards natural gas production as one of the primary fossil fuels used to power our national energy grid. Burning natural gas releases less carbon dioxide into the air than other fossil fuels such as coal or oil. Nonetheless, there is an enormous risk associated with methane leaks that impact climate change. 

Methane traps the heat of the sun and thus leads to the warming of our atmosphere. According to the Environmental Defense Fund, methane emissions are currently responsible for about 25 percent of all human-made global warming that we are experiencing. This significant contribution is because methane is much more potent than other greenhouse gasses such as carbon dioxide. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change affirmed that methane has a global warming potential of thirty-four on a 100-year time scale. This rating means that it is 34 times more potent of a greenhouse gas than dioxide over 100 years. However, methane gas breaks down in the atmosphere relatively quickly, usually over 20 years or so. So, methane has a high global warming potential and can be 86 times more potent than carbon dioxide emissions over twenty years. Most greenhouse gas reduction targets urge nations and industries to drastically cut their emissions within the next two to three decades. In the short run, the potency of methane emissions especially concerns, as these emissions could push us over a dangerous threshold.