While the COP26 continues in Glasgow, Mathilde Fontez, editor-in-chief of the scientific magazine Epsiloon recalls that monitoring greenhouse gas emissions is a major issue. It’s all well and good to agree on emission targets, but it is still necessary to be able to verify that they are being met.
And until then, it was very difficult to measure precisely, locally, CO2, methane, or other greenhouse gases that cause global warming. But that is changing. Yes, this is good news. We must admit, it is not so easy to give when we talk about warming …
franceinfo: Are these new technologies developed?
Mathilde Fontez: Mostly new satellites. Projects have been multiplying for two years. To track methane, we are developing satellites called hyperspectral: they break down the sunlight reflected by the Earth. It makes it possible to detect the signature of chemical species in the atmosphere. There are already some in space, the European Sentinel network for example. And at least 9 new ones should be sent by 2023. Plus a constellation in 2025.
For CO2 it’s harder. Until then, there were only ground sensors that could make precise measurements. But that’s it, two specialized satellites have been developed in Europe. They should take off around 2025.
And artificial intelligence also comes into the game: these computer programs which are able to learn to recognize patterns from a set of data, begin to help analyze the images taken by the satellites, to extract the plumes of CO2.
What are we targeting with these satellites? Power plants?
For CO2 yes, coal, gas and oil power stations. But also metallurgical factories. They emit 8% of global emissions. And for methane, we are tracking emissions from shale gas operations, emissions that are due to maintenance on gas pipelines. We look at the air vents of coal mines, open dumps …
There is really a power to act on warming: by blocking these emissions, by plugging leaks, studies show that it could be slowed down by 30%, and avoid a 0.25% increase in global temperature in 2050.
Is it a kind of climate police that is being put in place?
For the moment, nothing is organized at the international level. But it starts. The United Nations created a methane emissions observatory last March. And just the publication of these emissions measurements is already effective. An example: two years ago, the Chinese government dismantled factories because plumes of CFCs had been detected there.