THE INFLUENCE OF METHANE ON CLIMATE CHANGE

The article presents a scientific analysis of the influence of methane on climate change. It has been shown that human influence is one order less than the impact of natural processes among which there is the circulation of the main greenhouse gas, H2O. The constant amount of H2O in the atmosphere is maintained by accelerating/decelerating the circulation cycle of water vapor. A similar mechanism of selfregulation has been shown in the article for methane as well. Its content in the atmosphere is adjusted by its natural short-period transformation in the atmosphere. A comparison of the methane impact on the climate based on analyzing the global warming potential and the potential for global temperature changes have shown that the methane equivalence coefficient in relation to CO2 can be estimated as 4-11 instead of 25 as it has been earlier evaluated. The analysis has shown that the methane circulation is a natural global process, and the human-induced egress of methane to the atmosphere has only a small effect on the climate. The influence of the oil and gas sector is 0.1% of the total emissions of greenhouse gases in the global evaluation and the share of methane of the Russian gas industry is 0.004%.