Ember 60d ago

#CMMSpotlight | As world leaders meet in #Colombia this month to plan a transition away from fossil fuels, a silent super-emitter is often overlooked: coal mine #methane 🇨🇴 🛰️ While CO2 gets the headlines, methane emissions are 80 times more potent in the short term. This month, Ember’s Wilmar Suárez highlights methane emissions in Colombia’s coal mining regions of La Guajira and Cesar. On March 18th 2023, satellites detected a super-emitter event at the Cerrejón open-pit mine, the LARGEST coal mine in Latin America. This emission event, estimated at a rate of 3,700 kilograms of methane per hour, has the climate equivalent of roughly 98,700 Colombian cars on the road simultaneously 🚙💨 Methane from open-pit mines was notoriously hard to detect because emissions are released in small amounts across huge areas. Now, rapid improvements in satellite technology allow us to see what used to be hidden in plain sight. As the world moves away from coal, it will be crucial to close mines safely by flooding them – helping to avoid decades of additional emissions. Learn more ⬇️ https://ember-energy.org/CMM