Mitigating Methane a Global Health Strategy — Overview

This report details how methane emissions from agriculture, energy, and waste sectors accelerate global warming and degrade air quality, leading to significant human health risks. It argues that because methane has a short atmospheric lifetime, rapid reductions can provide immediate health and climate benefits, potentially avoiding 255,000 deaths and 775,000 asthma-related emergency room visits annually through readily available mitigation measures.

• Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to 45 percent of global temperature increases since the industrial revolution. While it remains in the atmosphere for only 12 years, one ton of methane can trap 25 times more heat than one ton of carbon dioxide over a century. The IPCC indicates that limiting global warming to 1.5C without overshooting requires significant reductions in methane emissions.
• Anthropogenic methane emissions are primarily driven by three sectors: agriculture (over 40%), energy (35%), and waste (20%). In agriculture, emissions stem from livestock enteric fermentation, manure decomposition, rice cultivation, and land clearing. Energy sector emissions result from oil and gas leakages, venting, flaring, and coal mining. Waste sector emissions are caused by the anaerobic decomposition of organic waste in landfills, dumpsites, and wastewater systems.

APA

Nguyen, L., Quintana, A., Rowland, A., & Vegh-Gaynor, G. (2023). Mitigating Methane a Global Health Strategy — Overview. Global Climate and Health Alliance. https://climateandhealthalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/MethaneReport-Overview-FINAL.pdf

Chicago

Nguyen, Linh, Amanda Quintana, Amy Rowland, and Gabriel Vegh-Gaynor. Mitigating Methane a Global Health Strategy — Overview. Global Climate and Health Alliance, 2023. https://climateandhealthalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/MethaneReport-Overview-FINAL.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Nguyen |first1=Linh |last2=Quintana |first2=Amanda |last3=Rowland |first3=Amy |last4=Vegh-Gaynor |first4=Gabriel |title=Mitigating Methane a Global Health Strategy — Overview |publisher=Global Climate and Health Alliance |date=August 2023 |url=https://climateandhealthalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/MethaneReport-Overview-FINAL.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{nguyen2023mitigating, author = {Nguyen, Linh and Quintana, Amanda and Rowland, Amy and Vegh-Gaynor, Gabriel}, title = {{Mitigating Methane a Global Health Strategy — Overview}}, institution = {Global Climate and Health Alliance}, year = {2023}, month = aug, url = {https://climateandhealthalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/MethaneReport-Overview-FINAL.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }