AN ESTIMATED 35 million tonnes of methane goes up into the atmosphere each year, thanks to leaks in Russian gas pipelines and wellheads, says an unpublished report from Russian researchers. This comes to around a tenth of all anthropogenic emissions of the gas, second only to carbon dioxide as a cause of global warming.

The amount of methane in the atmosphere has doubled since pre-industrial times and every year, its measure goes up by 0.6 per cent. According to a new study of the science of climate change, published by the UN'S Intergovernmental Panel on' Climate Change, total global emissions of methane adds up to 535 million tonnes a year, two thirds of which come from human sources. Rice paddies and the guts of ruminants, especially cattle, also contribute to methane in the atmosphere. Euan Nisbet, head of the European Commission's methane monitoring unit believes that though it would be difficult to reduce emissions from these sources, plugging the leaks in gas pipelines and checking the widespread practice of burning of vegetation in the tropics, could minimise greenhouse gas emissions.