U.S. Methane Emissions Forecasts for Key Sectors 1990-2020

2001 Updated emission and cost estimates provide relative and absolute forecasts of methane emissions through 2020 for landfills, natural gas and oil systems, coal mines, manure management, and enteric fermentation. The dataset is compiled by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as part of a report on inventories, projections, and reduction opportunities.

Use Cases

• Analyze emission forecasts for landfills, natural gas and oil systems, and coal mines to model sector-specific climate impact trajectories.
• Compare relative and absolute emission projections across manure management and enteric fermentation to identify priority areas for agricultural mitigation.
• Integrate the 2001 updated cost estimates with emission forecasts to evaluate the economic feasibility of proposed reduction strategies.

Strengths

• Forecasts cover five major methane-emitting sectors: landfills, natural gas and oil systems, coal mines, manure management, and enteric fermentation.
• Data provides both relative and absolute emission projections, enabling trend and magnitude analysis.
• Produced by the authoritative U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, ensuring methodological rigor.

Limitations

• The core forecast data is from a 2001 update, making projections potentially outdated for current analysis.
• The dataset lacks explicit row and column counts, limiting assessment of its granularity and scope.
• As a summary forecast dataset, it may not contain the underlying facility-level or annual time-series data needed for detailed statistical modeling.

Provenance

Source

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Collection Method

Compiled as part of an EPA report on methane inventories, projections, and reduction opportunities.

Time Range

Forecasts project emissions through 2020, with context from 1990.

Freshness

The metadata was last updated in June 2021, but the core forecast data is from a 2001 report update.

Geography

United States