HC Deb 26 October 1989 vol 158 c554W
Mr. Malcolm Bruce

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what monitoring of methane in the atmosphere has been conducted since 1985; and what plans he has to extend this.

Mrs. Virginia Bottomley

The Mace Head monitoring station, which monitors atmospheric methane, as a part of the global atmosphere gases experiment is funded by the Department. The Harwell laboratory has made a study of methane emissions from landfill waste disposal sites. Both these activities are expected to continue, together with an important new study of advanced measuring techniques by the national physical laboratory.