South Africa’s coal mines are leaking methane - and no one knows how much

South Africa’s coal mines could be leaking up to 14 times more methane than official figures show - and no one seems to have a full picture of just how bad it is. Even though the country has a carbon tax and environmental laws in place, there’s no clear policy that directly tackles methane emissions from coal mining - not even from closed or abandoned mines. Reporting responsibilities are scattered across different departments, and when mining companies do report, the data is often incomplete or not made public. Government figures estimate that coal mines emitted just 0.06 million tonnes of methane in 2022. But independent sources like the Global Energy Monitor and International Energy Agency suggest the real figure could be between 0.6 and 1.1 million tonnes, a massive gap caused by poor monitoring and missing data. Phemelo speaks to David van Wyk, Lead Researcher at the Bench Marks Foundation, to make sense of what this means for South Africa’s climate commitments.