new scientific study finds landfill methane emissions monitoring and reduction is one of most cost effective options to mitigate climate change, current emissions estimates up to 200% too low

Adding to the mountain of evidence that landfill emissions are worse than published estimates, a scientific global study published in Nature this month by Wang, Y., Fang, M., Lou, Z. et al. Methane emissions from landfills differentially underestimated worldwide, highlights “the importance of prioritizing landfill CH4 emission monitoring and reduction as one of the most cost-effective mitigation options to achieve current climate goals.”

The analysis also examined emission estimations of landfills worldwide and revealed up to 200% underestimations for individual landfills. The study improves upon current emission inventories from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change by incorporating compositional- and environmental-specific corrections, which are easily integrated into the IPCC model.