100 countries agree to emit less methane to tackle global warming, without China, India and Russia


Less methane to try to meet climate targets. This is the non-binding commitment reached by 103 countries, but without some of the most polluting countries, such as China, Russia and India. The agreement was reached in mid-September, when the United States and the EU launched the Global Commitment on Methane, an initiative to reduce global methane emissions “to maintain the objective of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius within reach,” explains the EU executive. A total of 103 countries, representing 70% of the world economy and almost half of methane emissions, have already signed the commitment, as announced Tuesday at COP26 in Glasgow by US President Joe Biden and EU President Ursula von der Leyen.

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Methane is a potent greenhouse gas and, according to the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, is responsible for about half of the net 1.0°C increase in global average temperature since pre-industrial times.

Rapid reductions in methane emissions are complementary to action on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, and are seen by the European Commission as the most effective strategy to reduce global warming in the short term and keep the goal of limiting warming to 1.5°C within reach.

Countries adhering to the Global Methane Commitment commit to a collective target of reducing global methane emissions by at least 30% below 2020 levels by 2030 and to make progress in implementing best available inventory methods to quantify methane emissions, with a focus on high sources of emissions. Compliance with the Commitment would reduce warming by at least 0.2°C by 2050.

“Around 30% of global warming since the Industrial Revolution is due to methane emissions,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, “but it is one of the gases we can cut the fastest. And doing so will immediately slow down climate change”.

Methane (CH4) comes mainly from landfills, the livestock sector and the energy sector, reports Efe, and it is the latter area of activity which has “certainly more potential for reduction,” according to Von der Leyen.

“About half of the heat we experience” comes from methane emissions, said U.S. President Joe Biden, describing one of the various gases that cause the greenhouse effect, such as nitrous oxide, tropospheric ozone, water vapor and fluorinated gases, among others. “What we do between now and 2030 is going to have a significant impact on whether or not we can meet our long-term commitments,” said Biden, who hoped to go “beyond” the expected 30% reduction in CH4 emissions, which the United States will try to reduce in its agricultural sector and pipelines.

Methane is up to “80 times more destructive than CO2 and is fully responsible for 0.5 degrees of the 1.1 degrees of warming we have today,” said U.S. climate change envoy John Kerry.

“As our beloved Pope Francis says, let us build together the globalization of solidarity so that what has triumphed until now does not triumph: the globalization of indifference,” said Argentine President Alberto Fernandez.

Additional reduction

“Countries have widely varying emission profiles and reduction potentials, but all can contribute to reaching the collective global goal through additional emission reductions and international cooperation measures,” says the European Commission: “The main sources of methane emissions include oil and gas, coal, agriculture and landfills. These sectors have different starting points and varying potential for methane reduction in the short term: the energy sector offers the highest specific reduction potential by 2030”.

Methane reduction brings significant additional benefits, such as improved public health and agricultural productivity. According to the Global Methane Assessment of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), meeting the 2030 target can prevent more than 200 000 premature deaths, hundreds of thousands of asthma-related emergency department visits and more than 20 million tonnes of crop losses per year by 2030 by reducing tropospheric ozone pollution caused in part by methane.

The signatory countries commit to a collective target to reduce global methane emissions by at least 30% from 2020 levels by 2030, and to use “best methodologies” to quantify methane emissions, in particular high-emission sources.

The US and the EU have also announced that a group of “global philanthropic organizations have committed $328 million in funding for such methane mitigation strategies around the world”. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the European Investment Bank and the Green Climate Fund have in turn, according to Brussels, pledged to support the commitment with technical assistance and project funding. “The International Energy Agency will also act as an implementing partner,” the European Commission says.

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