@article{5aac5ce446a24b83bb47c42ba0d9f110,
title = "Decadal decrease in Los Angeles methane emissions is much smaller than bottom-up estimates",
abstract = "Methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, has a short atmospheric lifetime (~ 12 years), so that emissions reductions will have a rapid impact on climate forcing. In megacities such as Los Angeles (LA), natural gas (NG) leakage is the primary atmospheric methane source. The magnitudes and trends of fugitive NG emissions are largely unknown and need to be quantified to verify compliance with emission reduction targets. Here we use atmospheric remote sensing data to show that, in contrast to the observed global increase in methane emissions, LA area emissions decreased during 2011-2020 at a mean rate of (–1.57 ± 0.41) %/yr. However, the NG utility calculations indicate a much larger negative emissions trend of −5.8 %/yr. The large difference between top-down and bottom-up trends reflects the uncertainties in estimating the achieved emissions reductions. Actions taken in LA can be a blueprint for COP28 and future efforts to reduce methane emissions.",
author = "Zeng, {Zhao Cheng} and Thomas Pongetti and Sally Newman and Tomohiro Oda and Kevin Gurney and Palmer, {Paul I.} and Yung, {Yuk L.} and Sander, {Stanley P.}",
note = "Funding Information: Flask data provided by Dr. Ed Dlugokencky and Dr. Arlyn Andrews (NOAA) are greatly appreciated. Comments from K.-F. Li and J. Pinto are gratefully acknowledged. Funding is acknowledged from NASA grant 80NSSC21K1929 (T.O.) and NIST grant 70NANB19H129 (K. G.) P.I.P. acknowledges support from the UK National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO) funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NE/R016518/1). S.S. and T.P. acknowledge support for the CLARS facility from the NASA Earth Science Directorate and the JPL Earth Science and Technology Directorate. The research was carried out, in part, at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (80NM0018D0004) Funding Information: Flask data provided by Dr. Ed Dlugokencky and Dr. Arlyn Andrews (NOAA) are greatly appreciated. Comments from K.-F. Li and J. Pinto are gratefully acknowledged. Funding is acknowledged from NASA grant 80NSSC21K1929 (T.O.) and NIST grant 70NANB19H129 (K. G.) P.I.P. acknowledges support from the UK National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO) funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NE/R016518/1). S.S. and T.P. acknowledge support for the CLARS facility from the NASA Earth Science Directorate and the JPL Earth Science and Technology Directorate. The research was carried out, in part, at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (80NM0018D0004) Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2023, Springer Nature Limited.",
year = "2023",
month = dec,
doi = "10.1038/s41467-023-40964-w",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "14",
journal = "Nature Communications",
issn = "2041-1723",
publisher = "Nature Publishing Group",
number = "1",
}