Keynote Lecture 1: Ilse Aben (SRON/VU)

The importance of reducing methane emissions to mitigate climate change in the short term has been recognised at the highest political level. By now, 160 countries have signed up to the Global Methane Pledge (GMP) to reduce emissions by 30% by 2030 compared to 2020.

Using the Dutch TROPOMI satellite instrument on ESA Sentinel-5 Precursor, we have shown we can detect methane hot spots/super-emitters globally coming from large emitting sources found in oil & gas production fields, coal mine regions, and urban areas (Schuit et al., 2023). However, with TROPOMI’s spatial resolution of ~5.5x7 km2 we can in most cases not determine the exact source of the large emission hot spot we see. For this we use high spatial resolution satellites that can zoom-in at ~25 m resolution, so at facility level, and can determine what exactly is causing these huge emissions seen with TROPOMI. This information is needed for concrete actions to reduce emissions.

The satellite information is provided amongst others to the United Nations for their Methane Alert Response System, and to organisations like the World Bank in support of their efforts to reduce methane emissions worldwide.

In this presentation I will illustrate and elaborate on the above developments of relevance to reducing methane emissions.