Methane emissions and climate compatibility of fossil fuels

Methane contributes directly and indirectly to the additional greenhouse effect caused by human activities. The vast majority of the anthropogenic methane release occurs worldwide in non-fossil sources such as rice cultivation, livestock operations, sanitary landfills and combustion of bio-mass. Methane emissions also occur during production, distribution and utilisation of fossil fuels. Also when considering the methane release and CO2-emissions of processes upstream of combustion, the ranking of environmental compatibility of natural gas, fuel oil and cool remains unchanged. Of all fossil fuels, natural gas contributes the least to the greenhouse effect. (orig.)