This summer, I found myself in three very different Asian cities – Beijing, Jakarta, and Seoul – all asking the same urgent question: how do we deal with the mountains of waste that are quietly fuelling the methane crisis?

Each stop offered a different vantage point. In Beijing, I joined a roundtable hosted by the Global Methane Hub at the China Methane Summit. The mood there was one of scale and systems. China’s zero-landfill ambition and its investment in monitoring, reporting, and verification systems stood out. Satellite mapping, co-treatment of waste streams, and strong financing tools were not abstract ideas; they were being tested on the ground. Panels highlighted how China is piloting integrated waste management models, combining landfill gas recovery, waste-to-energy, and land reclamation, while scaling Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) standards across provinces. For India, where financing still tilts toward large waste-to-energy projects and methane data remains fragmented, China’s focus on standardisation and measurable outcomes felt particularly instructive. It was a reminder that without credible numbers, methane remains an invisible problem.

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