Hello,
How can CO2, which causes atmospheric warming, cause more natural methane to be emitted, which has a shorter lifetime but greater GWP ? Then, H2 will exacerbate the situation if we continue with the planned production of H2--leaks. .
Over a 20 year period, and the lifetime of methane is about 9 years[2], the global warming potential (GWP) is 36, That means for every kilogram of methane you have 36 kg of CO2 effectively warming the planet. That means methane does a lot of warming over a 10 year period.
Sadly, methane is increasing because natural methane[2] and anthropogenic methane are increasing in emissions. Natural seems to be due to the wetlands in the tropics[2]. As they warm, due to climate change, they emit more. This has been collaborated with sampling stations and satellites, but we need better measuring[2].
What will make this worse for climate change, and we talk about this in Green Alternative Fuels, MACA, V.1.0,[1] is that a hydrogen economy that is being pushed by fossil fuel companies and Biden Administration can increase the lifetime of methane in the atmosphere[1-2] and have an indirect GWP of 6 to 16[1].
So, will global warming accelerate? Will climate change accelerate? If the methane emissions continue and we enter a 50 million metric tone of H2 per year in 2050, and that which comes before, we will likely have a delay in global average temperature reductions.
Once again, MACA is not proposing no hydrogen production. We think it should be green and at about 28.6%[1] of the 2050 value calculated by DOE.
References:
[1] https://maca.earth/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/MACAGreenAlternativeFuels.pdf
[2] Tipping Points Discussion Series (confetti.events)
-slides will be available in a couple days.