Addressing Methane: The Urgent Climate Solution We Can’t Ignore

We've all heard about CO2, but methane? That’s the silent, urgent problem—and an even bigger opportunity to make a real dent in global warming right now. The conversation at the NEST Climate Campus 2024 got real, fast. Whitney B. moderated a wonderful panel of "feel-and-do good peeps", digging into why methane and other non-CO2 gases are a critical "emergency brake" we need to pull immediately to prevent catastrophic climate change.

Project Drawdown’s Executive Director, Jon Foley, made it clear: if we don’t tackle methane emissions today, we’re missing one of our biggest opportunities to cool the planet—fast. Methane traps over 80 times more heat than CO2 over 20 years. It’s that potent. But it’s also manageable, with solutions right in front of us.

Take Tradewater, for example. Their work on sealing up actively leaking, orphaned oil and gas wells is something to watch. These wells, long forgotten, are still spewing methane—basically undoing any progress we're making elsewhere. Tradewater’s new methane program is set on a mission: close them down. And thanks to early support from Workday, they’re scaling this solution fast. Workday is taking an aggressive portfolio approach to address emissions that can’t yet be reduced—methane being a key piece. Erik Hansen spoke about how Workday, together with Kirsten Love and Tradewater, have arrived at a multi-year commitment, pushing innovation to make this all possible.

But it’s not just the U.S. tackling these invisible leaks. Canada’s got its own mess to clean up too. The situation with Alberta’s orphaned wells is no better, as highlighted in a recent CBC piece read here. Thousands of wells sit idle, leaking methane—proof that decades of neglect at both the corporate and regulatory levels have left a literal ticking time bomb for climate action.

So, what does this all mean for us, and how do we get involved?

Start by looking at the amazing work of people like Desiree Plata and her team at MIT’s Plata Lab check them out here. They're leading the charge in cutting-edge methane capture and filtration techniques, adding another layer of innovation to this fight that requires more than one silver bullet.

The climate crisis can’t wait for perfect, long-term solutions. Methane is our best shot at cooling the planet in the short term while we continue to rally to tackle the longer term solutions. Partnerships like those between Tradewater, Workday, and the brilliant minds at MIT are crucial. It’s time we take a hard look at methane and stop pretending CO2 is the only villain in the room.

Every bit of methane we stop today buys us time in the race to a sustainable future. Let’s not waste it by continuing to "do dumb stuff."