“Simply astounding:” Australian coal mine methane emissions may be twice offical data

Australia’s coal mine methane emissions are being vastly underreported and are damaging the nation’s credibility on climate change, economist Professor Rod Sims has warned.

Australia may be emitting at least twice the level of methane emissions than reported under a national reporting framework, according to results released on Tuesday from a new monitoring tool.

“The aggregate is so large that you’d have to think that most coal mines are under-reporting their emissions,” Prof Sims, who is the chair of the Superpower Institute, told AAP.

“It’s time to fix the rules. It’s time for the government to get a good, proper measurement system in place so Australia is not continually accused of under-reporting.”

Australia is part of a global pledge to cut methane emissions by 30 per cent by 2030, with fossil fuel producers, livestock and landfill among the main culprits worldwide.

But rubbery progress based on self-reported data risks damaging Australia’s international credibility, according to the institute’s analysis of the first batch of data from the Open Methane tool.

“The results are simply astounding … If we’re not measuring our emissions properly, how can we deal with them?” Prof Sims said.

Australia should be measuring actual emissions from specific locations and not using averages based on decades-old industry data for mining each tonne of coal, he said.

He said a network of ground stations and satellites could also measure agriculture’s methane emissions and whether carbon offsets were effective or not.

“We’ve estimated it’s $100 million over 10 years – $6 million a year to monitor it and $40 million to set it up,” Prof Sims said.

Exports of green iron, fertilisers, transport fuels and silicon will depend on credible measurements of emissions to meet environmental standards that will be required, particularly in Europe, he said.

Atmospheric physicist and pioneer in the global measurement of methane, Emeritus Professor Peter Rayner, said methane emissions were not being credibly measured, even though technology was available.

“Cutting methane is our single best strategy to combat global heating this decade while we make the changes needed to reduce Australia’s emissions to zero,” he said.

Prof Rayner said the first results from the Open Methane tool “unequivocally show” the federal government must mandate measurement by industry operators.

He urged the government to fund a minimum of 12 new monitoring sites around Australia, with results calibrated using satellites.

“If we continue to bury our heads in the sand while methane is being under-reported, there will be no integrity in our systems,” he said.

AAP