California demonstrates commitment to cut methane, allocating $100 million for remote sensing
California Governor Gavin Newsom’s newly proposed state budget signals a commitment to rein in harmful methane emissions – directing $100 million to remote methane sensing.
“We’re encouraged to see Governor Newsom allocate a portion of the state’s budget to addressing methane emissions in California,” said Jonathan Banks, Global Director, Super Pollutants at Clean Air Task Force. “You can’t manage what you can’t measure, and you can’t measure what you don’t monitor. This funding will help California build on its existing policies to address methane, allowing for a better understanding of California’s total methane footprint, and what additional policies will be needed to truly cut methane emissions. California’s efforts build on a global effort to unmask methane emissions and to unleash the opportunity that methane mitigation presents to bend the curve on climate change.”
Methane — primarily emitted from the oil and gas, waste, and agriculture sectors — is a harmful super pollutant that warms the planet more than 80 times more than carbon dioxide over its first 20 years in the atmosphere. It’s responsible for about half a degree Celsius of global warming to date, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
In 2021, at COP26 in Glasgow, more than 110 countries and the European Union united to sign the Global Methane Pledge — an international commitment to collectively reduce methane emissions by 30% by 2030. In the U.S., EPA recently issued a rule addressing existing sources of methane in the energy across the country for the first time in 2021, providing a pathway the agency can follow to issue a robust and protective final rule.
“California emits about 1.5 million tonnes of methane per year, according to Air Resources Board estimates. These emissions cause billions of dollars of damage to society, because methane rapidly heats up the climate and also degrades air quality. Investing in technology to find sources of methane so the pollution can be quickly stopped is just good sense,” Banks added.
Governor Newsom’s methane sensing funding is part of an additional $9.5 billion in climate investments in the budget, bringing the total funding for California climate action to $32 billion.
Press Contact
Troy Shaheen, Communications Director, U.S., Clean Air Task Force, [email protected], +1 845-750-1189
About Clean Air Task Force
Clean Air Task Force (CATF) is a global nonprofit organization working to safeguard against the worst impacts of climate change by catalyzing the rapid development and deployment of low-carbon energy and other climate-protecting technologies. With 25 years of internationally recognized expertise on climate policy and a fierce commitment to exploring all potential solutions, CATF is a pragmatic, non-ideological advocacy group with the bold ideas needed to address climate change. CATF has offices in Boston, Washington D.C., and Brussels, with staff working virtually around the world.
