COVID-19 lockdown emission reductions have the potential to explain over half of the coincident increase in global atmospheric methane

Stevenson, David S.; Derwent, Richard G.; Wild, Oliver; Collins, William J.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-14243-2022

Articles | Volume 22, issue 21

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-14243-2022

© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-14243-2022

© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 22, issue 21

Research article

|

08 Nov 2022

Research article |

| 08 Nov 2022

COVID-19 lockdown emission reductions have the potential to explain over half of the coincident increase in global atmospheric methane

David S. Stevenson, Richard G. Derwent, Oliver Wild, and William J. Collins

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-14243-2022-supplement

Data sets

Multimodel estimates of intercontinental source-receptor relationships for ozone pollution A. M. Fiore, F. J. Dentener, O. Wild, C. Cuvelier, M. G. Schultz, P. Hess, C. Textor, M. Schulz, R. M. Doherty, L. W. Horowitz, I. A. MacKenzie, M. G. Sanderson, D. T. Shindell, D. S. Stevenson, S. Szopa, R. Van Dingenen, G. Zeng, C. Atherton, D. Bergmann, I. Bey, G. Carmichael, W. J. Collins, B. N. Duncan, G. Faluvegi, G. Folberth, M. Gauss, S. Gong, D. Hauglustaine, T. Holloway, I. S. A. Isaksen, D. J. Jacob, J. E. Jonson, J. W. Kaminski, T. J. Keating, A. Lupu, E. Marmer, V. Montanaro, R. J. Park, G. Pitari, K. J. Pringle, J. A. Pyle, S. Schroeder, M. G. Vivanco, P. Wind, G. Wojcik, S. Wu, and A. Zuber https://doi.org/10.1029/2008JD010816

The influence of ozone precursor emissions from four world regions on tropospheric composition and radiative climate forcing Meridith M. Fry, Vaishali Naik, J. Jason West, M. Daniel Schwarzkopf, Arlene M. Fiore, William J. Collins, Frank J. Dentener, Drew T. Shindell, Cyndi Atherton, Daniel Bergmann, Bryan N. Duncan, Peter Hess, Ian A. MacKenzie, Elina Marmer, Martin G. Schultz, Sophie Szopa, Oliver Wild, and Guang Zeng https://doi.org/10.1029/2011JD017134

Modelling future changes in surface ozone: a parameterized approach O. Wild, A. M. Fiore, D. T. Shindell, R. M. Doherty, W. J. Collins, F. J. Dentener, M. G. Schultz, S. Gong, I. A. MacKenzie, G. Zeng, P. Hess, B. N. Duncan, D. J. Bergmann, S. Szopa, J. E. Jonson, T. J. Keating, and A. Zuber https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-12-2037-2012

Modifying emissions scenario projections to account for the effects of COVID-19: protocol for CovidMIP Robin D. Lamboll, Chris D. Jones, Ragnhild B. Skeie, Stephanie Fiedler, Bjørn H. Samset, Nathan P. Gillett, Joeri Rogelj, and Piers M. Forster https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-3683-2021

The contribution of global aviation to anthropogenic climate forcing for 2000 to 2018 D. S. Lee, D. W. Fahey, A. Skowron, M. R. Allen, U. Burkhardt, Q. Chen, S. J. Doherty, S. Freeman, P. M. Forster, J. Fuglestvedt, A. Gettelman, R. R. De León, L. L. Lim, M. T. Lund, R. J. Millar, B. Owen, J. E. Penner, G. Pitari, M. J. Prather, R. Sausen, and L. J. Wilcox https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2020.117834

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Atmospheric methane’s growth rate rose by 50 % in 2020 relative to 2019. Lower nitrogen oxide (NO_x) emissions tend to increase methane’s atmospheric residence time; lower carbon monoxide (CO) and non-methane volatile organic compound (NMVOC) emissions decrease its lifetime. Combining model sensitivities with emission changes, we find that COVID-19 lockdown emission reductions can explain over half the observed increases in methane in 2020.