The IM4CA proposal unites leading European methane experts in a concerted effort to establish the scientific fundament needed to bring the climate forcing of methane under control. Specific objectives are to:

1. Strengthen methane mitigation policy world-wide with actionable information on local methane emissions and key driving processes,
2. Provide the EU with the measurement and modeling capacity needed to monitor its methane emissions and assess its progress towards the 30% emission reduction target of the European methane strategy and the global methane pledge,
3. Explore and understand climate feedbacks on natural methane sources and sinks, and
4. Improve the accuracy of climate scenarios by resolving the controversy about the causes for the recent growth rate variations in global methane.

To achieve these objectives the IM4CA consortium addresses a selection of key uncertainties that have thus far limited the progress towards these goals by: i) building up critical new infrastructure for monitoring methane emissions in Europe and Tropical Africa, ii) developing methodology for efficient use of existing and upcoming satellites for measuring methane and the land surface properties needed for characterizing and attributing its emissions, and iii) translating the knowledge obtained into reliable projections of future methane and efficient emission mitigation scenarios. In doing so, the IM4CA project will enable a breakthrough in meeting the work program challenge of enhancing the quantification and understanding of natural and anthropogenic methane emissions and sinks. It will provide enhanced European assessment capacity of short- and long-term changes in methane sources and sinks integrating information from multi platforms and novel observations and transfer that capacity into actionable information needed to combat climate change.

The contribution of Empa’s E&I group will focus on intensive measurement campaigns in Romania measuring atmospheric CH₄, CH₄ isotopes (¹³CH₄, CH₃D) and ethane. Our measurements will then be used in atmospheric modelling to separate emissions into broad source sectors (e.g., fossil fuels, wetlands, agriculture) and support evaluation of the CH₄ pledge.