ISTANBUL (Dispatches) – Satellite observations have identified major methane leaks from Turkish landfills, including one of the world’s largest recorded sources of landfill emissions near Istanbul, raising questions about the country’s climate commitments just days before it hosts the COP31 United Nations climate summit.
Research by scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), analyzing satellite data, identified 70 methane plumes across Turkey’s 10 highest-emitting waste sites. The findings highlight the challenge facing Turkey as it prepares to welcome international climate negotiators in the Mediterranean city of Antalya from November 9 to 20.
The Seymen landfill, near Silivri west of Istanbul, recorded average detected methane emissions of approximately 7.4 metric tonnes per hour, placing it close to the highest-emitting landfill sites identified globally, according to the research.
The facility receives around 8,500 tonnes of household waste daily from Istanbul, a city of approximately 16 million people. Although methane is collected and used to generate electricity at a nearby power plant, satellite observations indicate that substantial quantities continue to escape into the atmosphere.
Methane is one of the most significant greenhouse gases contributing to global warming. It is more than 80 times as powerful as carbon dioxide over its first 20 years in the atmosphere, making reductions particularly important for limiting near-term temperature increases.
The UCLA analysis, based on observations from the Tanager-1 satellite between January 2025 and May 2026, identified major emission sources around Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir and Antalya.
Turkey’s Environment Ministry questioned whether the satellite measurements represented annual emissions, arguing that the observations were intermittent rather than continuous. It also pointed to improvements under the country’s Zero Waste Initiative, saying the national waste recovery rate increased to 37.53% in 2025 from 13% in 2017.
The operator of the Seymen landfill also disputed the representativeness of some readings, attributing unusually high measurements partly to maintenance work on methane collection pipes and atmospheric conditions.
Nevertheless, environmental specialists say that improving gas collection systems, repairing damaged landfill covers and diverting organic waste away from disposal sites could significantly reduce emissions.
According to World Bank data, Turkey’s methane emissions from waste increased by nearly 25% between 2014 and 2024, compared with a global increase of 6.5%.
Turkey has not joined the Global Methane Pledge, launched at COP26 in 2021, which seeks to reduce worldwide methane emissions by at least 30% from 2020 levels by 2030.