crack down on methane

METHANE is a potent greenhouse gas – one of the major causes of climate change.

It warms up the atmosphere 80 times as fast as carbon dioxide but breaks down much more quickly.

Scientists say about 0.5C of a 1.1C rise in global temperatures has been caused by methane emissions. It is a dangerous air pollutant.

This week at the United Nations crucial climate change conference, COP26 in Glasgow, more than 100 countries have signed up to the global methane pledge.

They have agreed to cut emissions by 30% before the end of the decade.

It is part of a deal intended to reduce global warming as well as air pollution.

But what does this deal mean? Environment Editor Nada Farhoud takes a closer look.

WHAT IS METHANE?

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, around 80 times stronger than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period.

But it only survives for about a decade once in the atmosphere, whereas CO2 lasts for hundreds of years.

WHERE DOES IT COME FROM?

Animal agriculture accounts for 37% of methane emissions with 17% attributable to livestock.

The world’s 1.5 billion cattle are responsible for 60% of livestock methane emissions – the equivalent of seven gigatons per year.

Figures released last week by the Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation show that a relatively small change in people’s diets – eating a bit less meat – could return enough land to compensate for all the remaining emissions from livestock.

The report said reducing animal agriculture – both the number of animals and land usage – by just 19% and converting this land to forest could allow the remaining methane emissions to be

balanced by the carbon equivalent captured by the new forests. However the global energy industry, including leaky oil and gas infrastructure and old coal mines, contribute almost as much, with emissions from landfill sites making up the rest.

WHAT WAS AGREED AT COP26?

The methane pledge is the second major declaration of the conference alongside a deal to end deforestation by 2030.

The joint initiative, launched by US and European leaders, will tackle the potent greenhouse gas which is crucial to keeping warming limited to 1.5C. It is also one of the fastest ways to reduce global warming.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

A UN report in May said steep cuts in methane emissions this decade could avoid nearly 0.3C of global warming by the 2040s.

Failing to tackle methane, however, would

WHO SIGNED UP?

jeopardise the 2015 Paris Agreement’s objective to limit the global rise in temperature to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels – and avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

At a time when every fraction of a degree matters, this is a major saving offering a vital contribution to restricting global heating.

Among the new signatories was Brazil – one of the world’s biggest emitters of methane.

The pledge now includes six of the world’s 10 biggest methane emitters: the US, Brazil, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Mexico. But other major emitters like Australia, China, Russia and India have not signed up.

Despite their absence from the list, the speed at which the pledge has been launched – since being announced in

September – is welcomed as a sign the world is waking up to the threat posed by warming gases.

Although the pledge has a reduction target of 30% by 2030, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recommends a reduction target of 40-45% by 2030 to stay below 1.5°C.

HOW WILL IT BE MONITORED?

A “constellation of dedicated satellites” is to be launched into orbit by the European Union to monitor greenhouse gas emissions in detail.

Scientists say the “game-changing” tool will be able to detect carbon dioxide and methane emissions with unprecedented accuracy.

Countries, companies and organisations not sticking to their climate agreements will be easily detectable.

US President Joe Biden, who initiated the pledge with the EU, committed to new legislation to cut methane leaks from 300,000 gas and oil rigs and an incentive for farmers

to reduce gas belched by cattle.