A coal mine in Australia's state of Queensland, previously identified as a major methane emitter, could be releasing greenhouse gases at rates up to eight times higher than officially reported, a new study said on Wednesday.
Researchers from the University of New South Wales (UNSW), part of an international team led by the United Nations Environment Program's International Methane Emissions Observatory (UNEP's IMEO), measured methane emissions from the Hail Creek open-cut coal mine in Queensland's Bowen Basin, Australia's major coal-producing region, said a study published in the Environmental Science and Technology Letters on Wednesday.
Using airborne instruments, researchers detected significantly higher emissions than the operator's reported annual average for the 2023 financial year. If sustained year-round, emissions could be three to eight times greater than reported, according to the study.
This marks the first successful independent verification of reported emissions from an Australian open-cut coal mine using this method. The findings underscore the need for mine-specific coal gas content modeling instead of generic state-wide emission factors, which often underestimate methane output, said co-author Stephen Harris from the UNSW Earth and Sustainability Science Research Center (ESSRC) Greenhouse Gas Measurement team.
Methane, over 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide in the short term, is a key contributor to climate change. Australia aims to reduce methane emissions by at least 30 percent from 2020 levels by 2030.
UNEP's IMEO supports policymakers and industry in better tracking and mitigating emissions. The study coincides with the Australian government's decision to phase out outdated estimation methods for fugitive methane emissions.
The Bowen Basin, home to most of Australia's metallurgical coal, plays a critical role in steel production. IMEO highlights that methane from met coal extraction accounts for a quarter of steel's climate impact. Managing these emissions effectively could be achieved at just 1 percent of steel production costs, offering a major opportunity for climate action, the researchers said.
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