Friday

29th Mar 2024

More countries join EU and US-led methane pledge

  • Methane is the second-biggest contributor to global warming, following carbon dioxide (Photo: Jeremy Buckingham)
Listen to article

Two dozen countries joined, on Monday (11 October), an US and EU-led initiative to reduce global methane emissions, as momentum builds ahead of the UN climate change conference (COP26) in Glasgow later this month.

Nigeria, Japan, Jordan, Pakistan, and the Philippines were among the new 24 signatories of the Global Methane Pledge, first announced by the European Union and the United States in September.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

Under this global effort, countries have committed to reducing methane emissions by at least 30 percent over the next decade and to improving the monitoring of emissions and leaks across the globe.

During a ministerial meeting with participating countries on Monday, US climate envoy John Kerry clarified that this was a global target and, therefore, "every country will do what it can in order to be able to reduce methane emissions".

Methane is the second-biggest contributor to global warming, following carbon dioxide. It is estimated to account for about half of the 1.0 degree Celsius rise in global temperatures that has already occurred since the pre-industrial era.

Last week, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said that 70 percent of methane emissions from gas and oil operations can be easily prevented.

"The solutions are proven and even profitable in many cases," IEA executive director Fatih Birol said at the time

Delivering on this global pledge could buy the planet some time, since it is estimated to reduce global warming by 0.2 degrees by 2050.

However, according to Inger Andersen from the UN environment programme, countries should not consider it as "a get-out-of-jail-free card" to tackle the climate crisis.

"It is important that we swiftly decarbonise our energy systems, that action on methane should be seen as complementary in the short term to the global efforts on CO2" in order to achieve the 2015 Paris Agreement targets, Andersen said.

This partnership now covers nine of the world's top 20 methane emitters, representing about 30 percent of global methane emissions and 60 percent of the global economy.

But both the EU and the US hope more countries will support this initiative, when it is formally launched in Glasgow.

"The pledge's supporters are putting methane squarely on the COP26 agenda, where it belongs, and every country in the world should follow their lead and join the pledge immediately," said Sarah Smith from NGO Clean Air Task Force.

Meanwhile, a group of 20 philanthropists has announced €170m to implement the global pledge.

EU imports methane emissions

Over the last three decades, the European Union has reduced methane emissions from landfill almost by half and fossil fuels by almost 65 percent, EU climate chief Frans Timmermans told his counterparts.

"But the large part of methane emissions associated with the European economy are not happening within our borders. Instead, they take place during the productions and transportation of fossil fuels that we import into the EU," he added.

The EU produces some five percent of global methane emissions internally, but it is the world's largest importer of gas and oil.

As a result, the European Commission is expected to put forward a legislative proposal by the end of the year to reduce methane emissions across the whole energy supply chain in the EU and in primary export countries - including binding rules on monitoring, reporting, leak detection and repair in the energy sector.

Within the EU, more than half of man-made methane emissions comes from agriculture (53 percent), followed by waste (26 percent) and energy (19 percent).

In the agriculture sector, the EU will promote research on innovative methane reducing technologies and nature-based solutions.

Dozens of unreported methane leaks discovered at EU gas sites

Using an infrared camera, the environmental activists discovered methane leaks from oil and natural gas plants across several member states. Methane is the second-biggest contributor to global warming, after carbon dioxide.

EU Commission methane plan lacks binding agriculture targets

The new European Commission strategy on slashing methane emissions focuses first on obtaining better data. Critics say it is a missed opportunity to impose targets and other binding measures on agriculture, the largest single emitter.

Opinion

Methane emissions will be test of EU's Green Deal

Methane, a potent greenhouse gas, is one area where the EU has a major opportunity to apply its market power to drive down global emissions, both through methane legislation and diplomacy.

'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told

Italian central banker Piero Cipollone in his first monetary policy speech since joining the ECB's board in November, said that the bank should be ready to "swiftly dial back our restrictive monetary policy stance."

Opinion

EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania

Among the largest sources of financing for energy transition of central and eastern European countries, the €60bn Modernisation Fund remains far from the public eye. And perhaps that's one reason it is often used for financing fossil gas projects.

Latest News

  1. Kenyan traders react angrily to proposed EU clothes ban
  2. Lawyer suing Frontex takes aim at 'antagonistic' judges
  3. Orban's Fidesz faces low-polling jitters ahead of EU election
  4. German bank freezes account of Jewish peace group
  5. EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania
  6. 'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told
  7. Moscow's terror attack, security and Gaza
  8. Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  2. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries
  3. European Citizen's InitiativeThe European Commission launches the ‘ImagineEU’ competition for secondary school students in the EU.
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  5. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  6. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us