Significant local air quality benefits of local methane emission reduction  

Speaker:  Alex Archibald 

Chair(S): Scott Osprey

wednesday October 23 2024, 13:00

ABSTRACT

Methane has gained prominence in its role in global heating through its direct radiative effects as well as through its impacts on forming tropospheric ozone – another potent greenhouse gas and air pollutant. Typically studies looking at the climate or air quality impacts associated with methane have used made globally uniform adjustments to methane mixing ratios. The development of the UKESM-ems configuration now allows us to quantify the climate and air quality impacts of local scale methane emission changes for the first time. Using this model we show that there are significant local air quality benefits to local methane mitigation. In other words, methane emission reductions can be a win-win for climate and air quality.