1310 Figure 1 - Annual methane (CH4) emissions in 2024 - data by country. Fossil fuels are responsible for approximately 31÷42% of methane emissions caused by human activities. According to data from the International Energy Agency (IEA), coal mines account for almost one-third of these emissions. According to estimates by the Global Methane Emission Tracking System (GMET), global methane emissions from coal mines amounted to (updated May 2025) 58.9 million tonnes, and the largest issuers include China (43.4 million tonnes), the United States (2.7 million tonnes) and Australia (2.6 million tons). Poland ranks 9th in this ranking with estimated methane emissions of 0.7 million tonnes. According to the International Energy Agency, the energy sector in European Union countries will emit a total of 2,393 kilotons of methane in 2023. Coal mining was the main factor here, responsible for emitting 845 kilotons of methane. Data from the Global Coal Mine Tracker and Global Energy Monitor indicate that emissions from active mines are even higher, at around 1,150 kilotons, or 1,721 million cubic meters of methane. Poland is responsible for most of these emissions, about two-thirds of the total. 2. METHANE EMISSIONS IN POLAND In 2025, the National Centre for Emission Balancing and Management (KOBiZE) published The National Inventory Report 2025 - Inventory of greenhouse gas emissions and removals in Poland for 1988÷2023. According to the report, total domestic greenhouse gas emissions in 2021 amounted to 399.26 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent. In 2022, there was a decline in domestic greenhouse gas emissions of almost 5% compared to 2021, and the main factor contributing to the reduction in domestic emissions was a decrease in emissions from fuel combustion, mainly in the electricity and heat production sector (by over 4%) and in households (by approx. 9%). In these subcategories, there was a significant decline in hard coal consumption - by 16% for households and by 7% for production electricity and heat. In 2023, greenhouse gas emissions will continue to decline compared to the previous year, by 8.6% (348.44 million tonnes of eq. WHAT2). The main reason for the reduction in emissions was a reduction in the consumption of fossil solid fuels - hard coal by over 14% and lignite by about 26%, which concerned the electricity and heat production sector primarily. Carbon dioxide plays a dominant role in domestic greenhouse gas emissions (81.4%). Share of methane and nitrous oxide is much smaller and amounts to: 11.5% and 5.9%, respectively. Fluorinated industrial gases contribute little to domestic emissions (totalling approx. 1.1%). The largest share of total gas emissions the energy sector (approx. 83.2%) had greenhouse gas emissions in Poland in 2023, and within this sector, combustion processes of fuels (77.3%). Agriculture was responsible for 9.8% of total greenhouse gas emissions, and industrial processes for 5.6% and waste for 1.2%. Methane emissions in Poland have been falling almost continuously since 1988. (Fig. No. 2). In 2023, the size of this emission amounted to 1,431.73 kt (i.e. 40.09 million tonnes of CO equivalent2), and compared to 1988, it was 48.8% lower. Compared to previous years, methane emissions decreased by 2.1% compared to 2022, by 5.9% compared to 2021, and by 7.2% compared to 2020, respectively.
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