Turkmenistan begins plugging world's worst methane leaks — SkimNews
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- Methane traps more than 80 times as much heat as carbon dioxide over a 20-year period and currently drives 25% of global warming, making leak repair one of the highest-leverage climate levers available.
- Damian Carrington, environment editor, reported in 2023 on roughly 1,000 super-emitting methane leaks detected across the globe.
- Turkmenistan, identified in that 2023 reporting as the worst country for mega-leaks, has now begun plugging them.
- Some experts characterize stopping methane leaks as the climate 'emergency brake,' citing the speed and low cost of plugging versus the outsized near-term warming impact of the gas.
- The piece names the countries 'still failing to act' on methane repair, framing the global inaction as the central climate puzzle despite an available, affordable fix.
Why it matters: Methane drives 25% of current warming and is 80x more potent than CO2 over 20 years, so plugging super-emitter leaks delivers outsized near-term cooling fast and cheap — but Turkmenistan's belated move exposes that most other major emitters have not followed, leaving the fastest climate lever largely untapped.
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