Satellites find big methane leaks at landfills in Türkiye, host of COP31

Satellite measurements have picked out some of the world’s largest methane leaks at landfills in Türkiye, the country hosting this year’s United Nations climate summit, COP31, in Antalya in November.

A ranking by STOP Methane, a project of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), released in April 2026, lists 25 waste sites in 18 countries with the highest methane emission rates detected from space. Reports on the ranking put at least two of them in Türkiye. The largest Turkish source is a landfill at Silivri, on the edge of Istanbul, which satellite readings show releasing about 7.4 tonnes of methane an hour on average, according to Turkish reports of the findings.

Why methane matters

Methane is the second-biggest cause of global warming after carbon dioxide. Over its first 20 years in the atmosphere it traps more than 80 times as much heat, but it also breaks down far sooner, so cutting it can slow warming relatively fast. That is why scientists see leaks from waste sites, oil and gas fields and farms as some of the quickest gains available.

Landfills, where buried rubbish rots without air, are among the largest human sources. A separate study by researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences found that a widely used global inventory underestimates emissions from badly run open dumps by about five times on average, which is why satellite checks are becoming important.

The summit

Türkiye has put “zero waste and reducing methane emissions” at the top of its action agenda for COP31, where governments negotiate the next steps on climate change. Satellite data now lets researchers check such pledges against what sites actually release.