Methane mitigation: Learning from the natural marine environment

During the past decades,public attention regarding global warming has mainly focused on CO_(2) reduction;however,CH4,another important greenhouse gas,has a global warming potential that is 84 times higher than that of CO_(2) on a 20-year basis.The annual atmospheric amount of CH4 in 2020 reached its highest level since systematic monitoring began in 1983(Figure 1A).To date,despite coronavirus 2019 shutdowns,methane has contributed approximately 30%to global warming.Recently,a series of timely appeals,such as“The Global Methane Pledge”signed at the United Nations Climate Change Conference(COP26)and the“Global Methane Assessment”from the United Nations Environment Program,have called on global methane reduction and mitigation.