30/07/2026
🛰️ | A methane plume detected over a coal mine in highlights how the country's coal challenge is not only carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants, but also emissions from coal mining 🇮🇩
This month, Ember’s Dody Setiawan talks us through the plume detected over an Indonesian open cut coal mine on 17 April 2026, estimated to be around 784 kilograms of methane per hour. If captured, it will be enough to supply equivalent LPG for around 60,000 households annually 🏠
The detection challenges the assumption that surface coal mines emit little or no methane. Although methane emissions from surface mines are typically more diffuse than those from underground mines, and Indonesia's tropical climate makes satellite observations challenging, advances in satellite technology are now making it possible to detect significant methane emissions even from surface coal mines.
Indonesia should ensure that coal mine methane emissions are addressed alongside carbon dioxide from coal combustion. Strengthening methane monitoring and mitigation will be important for Indonesia to meet its emissions reduction targets, while contributing to the Global Methane Pledge goal by 2030.
Join the Ember team during ASEAN Methane Week to discuss the role of methane mitigation in supporting net zero pathways👇
https://aseanenergy.org/events/asean-methane-week-advancing-energy-climate-and-net-zero-pathways
Source: Carbon Mapper
