Over 150 countries have joined a pact to reduce emissions of the powerful greenhouse gas methane by 30 percent by 2030 compared to 2020 levels. This was announced by the US and the EU at a press conference at the COP27 climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
The pact was launched by the two parties in connection with COP26 last year in the Scottish city of Glasgow. Since then, more than 50 new countries have joined.
The US special climate envoy at COP27, former Secretary of State John Kerry, says that it is crucial to combat methane if the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees is to be kept alive.
Methane is a very potent greenhouse gas. It is approximately 80 times more potent than CO2 over 20 years. CO2 stays in the atmosphere much longer than methane and therefore has a longer-lasting effect.
Methane, on the other hand, sets the pace for global warming in the shorter term because it retains heat approximately 25 times better than CO2. However, methane breaks down much faster than CO2. It is wise to focus on methane, says the EU's climate chief, Frans Timmermans.
- Methane is the cheapest and fastest way to reduce global warming in the coming years. If we take it seriously, we can reduce the increasing global warming by doing simple things in the agricultural, energy and waste sectors, he says.
The world's largest emitters have not signed
Neither China nor India, two of the world's largest emitters of methane, have signed the pact. However, China's special climate envoy at COP27, Xie Zhenhua, still appeared at the press conference.
Last year, he promised John Kerry that China would work on an action plan in this area. At the press conference, Xie Zhenhua said that China has an action plan ready and that it is going through various legislative processes.
The plan is about, among other things, improving monitoring and statistics on methane emissions. China lacks better tools here, and this is a contributing factor to the country's inability to join the methane pact right now, he says. Methane flows into the atmosphere from, for example, oil and gas extraction and from landfills and rice cultivation.
At the press conference, it was said by both China, the US and the EU that the focus is on the energy sector, the waste sector and agriculture in the continued fight against methane emissions.
/ritzau/
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