Coal Mines Say They Slashed Methane Emissions. Experts Don’t Believe Them.

Physicist Jaroslaw Necki vividly recalls his trips to the “Sahara,” the vast open-pit mines of central Poland rich with soft lignite coal. Working in these treeless landscapes, where sand and clay stretch into the distance, he’d often forget he was in the middle of Europe. Over the years, these excursions have made the associate professor at Krakow’s Mining and Metallurgical Academy a leading global expert in methane emissions — a powerful greenhouse gas known to have a significant impact on glo