New York City has spent years fixing gas leaks, but the biggest methane problem isn’t under the streets

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🗞️ Driving the news: New research suggests much of New York City’s methane emissions linked to natural gas may come from incomplete combustion inside buildings rather than leaks from underground pipelines

🔭 The context: Researchers from Columbia University analysed methane, ethane and carbon monoxide concentrations measured from a monitoring tower on Long Island, allowing them to distinguish natural gas emissions associated with combustion from unburned leaks
• Natural gas accounted for 99% of measured methane in February and 98% in May, while even during summer months it represented 85% to 88%
• Only around 6% of winter plumes and 7% of summer plumes showed no combustion signal, the category most consistent with pipeline leakage

🌍 Why it matters: Methane traps more than 80 times as much heat as CO₂ over a 20-year period, making rapid reductions particularly important for slowing near-term climate change
• The findings suggest cities may need to look beyond repairing gas mains and address boilers, furnaces and gas-powered cooling systems as potential sources
• Researchers caution that the study relied on one monitoring tower and could not identify which individual appliances were responsible

⏭️ What’s next: Researchers say further work is needed to quantify how much methane from incomplete combustion could realistically be eliminated, while regular servicing of gas boilers and continued repair of pipeline leaks remain important

📈 One stat: The study estimated that around 1.7% of natural gas delivered across the New York metropolitan area was lost as methane, worth close to $300m annually

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