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Methane levels in the atmosphere have risen at the highest rate in the past year since measurements began 40 years ago, raising concerns about the gas that is warming the planet, government scientists said on Thursday. gases from oil and natural gas operations.

Methane is less present in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, but its short-term effects on global warming are stronger. Large quantities of methane are poured into the air from wells and pipelines, sometimes through unintentional leaks. Other sources include the decay of organic matter from livestock, landfills, and wetlands.

Atmospheric methane concentrations have risen steadily over the past 15 years, reaching a new high in 2021, increasing by a record amount from the previous year. preliminary analysis by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. this previous record was set in 2020 for the annual increase in methane levels.

“Our data shows that global emissions continue to move rapidly in the wrong direction,” said NOAA director Richard W. Spinrad. “It is an important tool we can use now to reduce methane emissions, mitigate the effects of climate change in the near term and rapidly reduce the rate of warming.”

Increasing methane emissions in recent years have brought increased attention to the role of gas in accelerating climate change.

More than anything else, carbon dioxide contributes to warming the planet. NOAA analysis released Thursday shows that carbon dioxide levels continue to rise rapidly in 2021. NOAA said that over the past 10 years, carbon dioxide concentrations have grown at the fastest rate in the six years since monitoring began.

However, because the more methane contributes to warming over shorter periods of time, scientists see reducing methane emissions as a way to curb warming faster.

And unlike the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere when fossil fuels are burned for energy, methane is the main component of natural gas; this means that the emitters have economic reasons not to let too much release into the air through leaks. Scientists estimate that the energy industry accounts for about a third of global methane emissions.

In addition to trapping heat at the Earth’s surface, methane also contributes to ground-level ozone pollution, which can cause respiratory problems and other health problems. With NOAA’s estimatesmethane is now two and a half times more in the atmosphere than before the Industrial Revolution.

At the global climate summit held in Glasgow last year, more than 100 countries came together and reduce global methane emissions 30 percent by 2030. Biden administration new rules announced It manages methane from oil and gas rigs in the United States.

One factor that may have contributed to the rapid increase in methane emissions over the past two years may be increased precipitation in the tropics, driven by climate. The phenomenon known as La Niñasaid Xin Lan, an atmospheric scientist at the NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory in Boulder, Colo.

The added rain and moisture may have caused increased methane production by the microbes living inside. tropical wetlands, said. These microorganisms are also more active in warmer temperatures, so natural emissions from wetlands and elsewhere may increase overall as the planet warms.

Even so, Dr. Limiting leaks from fossil fuel plants should be an easier way to stabilize methane levels than trying to manipulate precipitation in the tropics, Lan said. “Reducing fossil fuel methane emissions seems like a trivial fruit to us,” he said, especially given that emitters can use that methane as fuel and make money from it.

Dr. Lan called the leaked methane “pure waste of energy.” “It shouldn’t be there in the atmosphere.”