Wasted: Natural gas flaring emits same amount of CO2 as 77 million vehicles

General Electric's newly released study – Flare Gas Reduction: Recent Global Trends and Policy Considerations – estimates that five percent of global natural gas production is wasted due to flaring each year. Natural gas flaring, according to GE, emits 400 million metric tons of CO2 annually, the same as 77 million automobiles. Here's the real problem: gas flaring doesn't produce useful energy, electricity or heat. This means that worldwide, billions of cubic meters of natural gas are wasted every year, typically as a by-product of oil extraction.

Source: Autoblog Green