Six years ago, as countries around the world went into COVID lockdowns, the air got cleaner. Factories slowed down, roads emptied and aeroplanes were grounded. As people stayed home, the world burned fewer fossil fuels and so carbon dioxide emissions dropped.

But something else was also happening in the atmosphere. Levels of methane, an extremely potent greenhouse gas that warms the planet even faster than CO2, rose faster in 2020 than at any point since records began in the 1980s. And methane levels kept on rising during 2021 and 2022.

Ever since, scientists have been trying to piece together what caused this sudden mysterious increase in methane. Now, they think they have the answer – and it was partly due to COVID lockdowns.

In this episode, we speak to Philippe Ciais, a researcher at the Laboratory for Environmental and Climate Science at Université Paris-Saclay in France, and one of the authors of a new study in the journal Science about the spike in methane levels, who explains how they solved the mystery.

This episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany and Katie Flood and Gemma Ware was the executive producer. Mixing by Eleanor Brezzi and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the full credits for this episode and sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

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• Pourquoi les émissions de méthane ont-elles bondi de 2020 à 2023 ? Une étude permet enfin de répondre
• Why fixing methane leaks from the oil and gas industry can be a climate game-changer – one that pays for itself
• Coronavirus lockdowns cut global carbon emissions by an estimated 7% – what happens now?
• Methane emissions are at new highs. It could put us on a dangerous climate path

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