As COP31 comes to Turkey, satellites reveal a landfill methane problem
UCLA researchers found 70 methane plumes at Turkey’s 10 highest-emitting waste sites, including one landfill near Istanbul that ranks among the world’s largest emitters.
- Researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles released satellite data on November 7 identifying 70 methane plumes at Turkey's top 10 waste sites, with findings emerging days before COP31 begins in Antalya on November 9.
- Turkey ranks as the world's 5th-biggest methane emitter from solid waste, with emissions rising nearly 25% to around 21 million tons over the last decade, yet the nation has not joined the Global Methane Pledge .
- The Seymen landfill serving Istanbul's 16 million residents emits about 7.4 tons of methane hourly according to satellite data, though municipal operator ISTAC disputes the figures, citing temporary maintenance work and low atmospheric pressure.
- Defending its waste record, the Environment Ministry reported a national 'recovery rate' of 37.53% in 2025, up from 13% in 2017, and argued satellite measurements lack continuous data needed for accurate annual reporting.
- Carbon Mapper experts identified 'huge mitigation potential' at Turkey's largest landfills, suggesting better-designed collection systems and repairs to cracked covers could deliver disproportionate emissions reductions across the nation.
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As COP31 comes to Turkey, satellites reveal landfill methane problem
SEYMEN, Turkey — In the countryside west of Istanbul, trucks line up to empty mixed household waste from the city of 16 million people onto a vast landscape of decomposing rubbish, where landfill gas is captured to generate electricity at a nearby plant. But far above the seagulls circling the waste, satellites detect what the plant has failed to capture: methane escaping at a rate that ranks it among the world’s largest recorded landfill emitte…
Paris, 6 Nov (EFE).- The president of France, Emmanuel Macron, will not go to COP31 in Antalya (Turkey) when he alleges agenda problems during the two days that this appointment dedicated to heads of state and government (11 and 12 November), said this Friday diplomatic sources. These same sources recalled that Macron [...] The entry Macron will not go to COP31 in Antalya (Turkey) for agenda problems was first published in HolaNews.
The President will not attend the summit of the Heads of State on 11 and 12 November in Antalya, a political event which opens the negotiations every year, an absence which the environmental associations regret.
Turkey landfill Methane Leaks Exposed Ahead of COP31
ISTANBUL, Turkey, 7 November – Brussels Morning Newspaper – Satellite observations have exposed significant methane emissions from several major landfill sites across Turkey, raising fresh environmental concerns just days before the country hosts the COP31 United Nations climate summit. Researchers …
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