Context: As per the studies of the Global Carbon Project, the amount of methane in the Earth’s atmosphere has continued to rise, with 576 million tonnes of the gas added every year between 2008 and 2017.

• Emissions increased by nine per cent compared to the last decade.
• Methane emissions briefly stabilised between 2000 and 2006, concentrations of the gas in the atmosphere now exceed 1,875 parts per billion or about 2.5 times that from the 1850s.

Causes

• Wetlands contributed most of the emissions, at 30 per cent.
• Oil, gas and coal activities accounted for 20 per cent of the emissions.
• Agriculture made up 24 per cent of the emissions
• Landfills were responsible for 11 per cent.

Regions

• Tropical regions in three continents i.e. Africa, Asia and South America were responsible for 64 per cent of the entire planet’s emissions.
• Temperate regions contributed to 32 per cent
• The Arctic region contributed 4 per cent.

The Arctic Region

• Large amounts of carbon are contained in the Arctic’s frozen soils (permafrost) and forest vegetation.
• Water-logged soil, once it begins to thaw, creates conditions ideal for methane production.
• NASA’s Arctic Boreal Ecosystem Vulnerability Study researchers have found millions of sources of methane around small ponds and lakes in Alaska and western Canada.

Global Carbon Project

• It was established in 2001 by a shared partnership between the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP), the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) and Diversitas.
• It is a Global Research Project of Future Earth and a research partner of the World Climate Research Programme.
• The GCP approach is to focus comprehensively on the global biogeochemical cycles which govern the main greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O), their natural and human drivers, and opportunities for low carbon pathways.
• It aims to develop a small number of new research initiatives that are feasible within a 3-5-year time framework on difficult and highly interdisciplinary problems of the carbon cycle.

The Goals are
The scientific goal of the Global Carbon Project is to develop a complete picture of the global carbon cycle, including both its biophysical and human dimensions together with the interactions and feedbacks between them. This will be:

• Patterns and Variability
• Processes and Interactions
• Carbon Management