Ghazipur a methane super-emitter: Report

The report by the Guardian carried an analysis of data by Kayrros, a company that has multiple satellites observing environmental emissions

The Ghazipur landfill in Delhi was among the largest emitters of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that causes atmospheric warming, a report has said, citing satellite data drawn between 2019 and 2023 that showed a total of 1,256 “super-emitter events” across the world.

The report found that between January 2019 and June 2023, the Ghazipur landfill had at least 124 super-emitted events, including one in April, 2022 when the amount of methane that poured into the atmosphere was “equivalent to the pollution caused by 68m petrol cars running simultaneously”. (HT Archive)

The report by the Guardian carried an analysis of data by Kayrros, a company that has multiple satellites observing environmental emissions.

It found that between January 2019 and June 2023, the Ghazipur landfill had at least 124 super-emitted events, including one in April, 2022 when the amount of methane that poured into the atmosphere was “equivalent to the pollution caused by 68m petrol cars running simultaneously”.

“A total of 1,256 methane super-emitter events occurred between January 2019 and June 2023, according to the new data. Pakistan, India and Bangladesh lead the list of nations with the most large leaks, followed by Argentina, Uzbekistan and Spain,” the report said.

Delhi, the report added, recorded “at least 124 super-emitter events from city landfills since 2020… The worst event in India occurred in April 2022 in Delhi, with methane poured into the atmosphere at a rate of 434 tonnes an hour,” the report said.

That month, the landfill was consumed by repeated outbreaks of fire. A massive fire spread through a section of the landfill for the first time on March 28 that year, before reigniting repeatedly, sending a dense plume of smoke several metres into the sky and causing a toxic haze around the area, police and fire department officials said at the time.

Such fires have broken out often at the site, especially during summer.

The Guardian report added that a recent outburst was near Lahore in Pakistan in February, which leaked methane “at 214 tonnes an hour, equivalent to 34m car exhausts”.

Landfills emit methane when organic decomposes in the absence of oxygen. Methane traps 86 times more heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide over 20 years, making it a critical target for climate action, the report added.