Global Methane Pledge:
The Global Methane Pledge was launched at the UN COP26 climate conference in Glasgow.
- It is an effort led jointly by the United States and the European Union.
- So far, over 90 countries have signed this pledge.
About the Global Methane Pledge:
- The pledge was first announced in September by the US and EU, and is essentially an agreement to reduce global methane emissions.
- One of the central aims of this agreement is to cut down methane emissions by up to 30 per cent from 2020 levels by the year 2030.
- According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), while methane has a much shorter atmospheric lifetime (12 years as compared to centuries for CO2), it is a much more potent greenhouse gas simply because it absorbs more energy while it is in the atmosphere.
- In its factsheet on methane, the UN notes that methane is a powerful pollutant and has a global warming potential that is 80 times greater than carbon dioxide, about 20 years after it has been released into the atmosphere.
- Significantly, the average methane leak rate of 2.3 per cent “erodes much of the climate advantage gas has over coal”.
- The IEA has also said that more than 75 per cent of methane emissions can be mitigated with the technology that exists today, and that up to 40 per cent of this can be done at no additional costs.
