Coal Mine Methane Emissions Tracker

Ember employs a scoring system from 0 to 6 to assess the reliability of country-level coal mine methane (CMM) emissions reporting. The score is derived from three categories: the recency of UNFCCC reporting, the similarity of reported data to independent estimates from the IEA, GEM, and satellite observations, and the robustness of the estimation methods (UNFCCC tiers). The methodology includes specific adjustments for countries with significant changes in coal production, low-emitting countries, and the proportion of surface versus underground mining.

• Ember assigns a confidence score between 0 (low confidence) and 6 (high confidence) to UNFCCC reported coal mine methane emissions based on three categories: recency of reporting, similarity to independent estimates, and the robustness of estimation methods.
• The recency score is based on whether a country reported in 2019 or more recently, though a point is deducted if coal production has changed by +/- 50% since the last reporting year.
• Similarity scores are determined by comparing UNFCCC reports against three independent sources: the IEA, GEM, and satellite data by Shen et al. (2023). A score of 2 points is given for a difference of less than 50%, 1 point for less than 100%, and 0 points for more than 100%.
• Robustness is scored based on the UNFCCC tier used; Tier 3 methodology with more than 50% of coal from underground mines earns 2 points, Tier 2 earns 1 point, and Tier 1 earns 0 points.
• Countries with reported or estimated CMM emissions below 1 kT per year are excluded from the scoring and designated as "not ranked" due to high uncertainties.

APA

Ember (2023). Coal Mine Methane Emissions Tracker. https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2023/11/Methodology_CMM-Emissions-Tracker.pdf

Chicago

Ember. Coal Mine Methane Emissions Tracker. 2023. https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2023/11/Methodology_CMM-Emissions-Tracker.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Ember |title=Coal Mine Methane Emissions Tracker |date=2023 |url=https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2023/11/Methodology_CMM-Emissions-Tracker.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{ember2023coal, author = {{Ember}}, title = {{Coal Mine Methane Emissions Tracker}}, institution = {Ember}, year = {2023}, url = {https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2023/11/Methodology_CMM-Emissions-Tracker.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }