EU and US want global agreement to cut methane emissions – EURACTIV.pl

The European Union and the United States decided to jointly strive to reduce methane emissions by 30%. By 2030, Brussels and Washington are calling on other economic powers to take similar steps in the fight for climate, reach EURACTIV.com.

According to the Global Methane Pledge project that gained access to it ReutersThe European Union and the United States will make a joint commitment later this week to reduce human-caused methane emissions by at least 30%. by 2030 compared to 2020 levels

What are the details of the initiative?

The project notes that methane has a short lifetime in the atmosphere, which means that actions taken to reduce its emissions will rapidly reduce the rate of climate warming.

The commitment will cover the major sources of methane emissions, namely leaky oil and gas infrastructure, old coal mines, agriculture and waste management. Both the United States and the European Union will propose legislation to reduce methane emissions later this year.

There is also a separate document that lists more than two dozen countries that the United States and the European Union want to persuade to join the pledge and take action at the national level to jointly pursue a methane reduction target.

Among them are China, Russia, India, Brazil and Saudi Arabia, whose economies are characterized by high levels of emissions, but also, among others, Norway, Qatar, Great Britain, New Zealand and South Africa.

So far, representatives of the US State Department and the European Commission have declined to comment on the agreement. It will likely be revealed next Friday (17 September), during the High Carbon Economies Meeting, the aim of which is to gain support ahead of the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow scheduled for November.

Methane – what is it?

Methane is the second largest greenhouse gas contributing to climate change after carbon dioxide.

For this reason, the level of methane emissions is under more and more debate – reducing them may be the key to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees, the goal set forth in the 2015 Paris climate agreement.

Methane has a greenhouse potential many times greater than carbon dioxide, but it degrades faster in the atmosphere, thanks to efforts to reduce its emissions while reducing carbon dioxide emissions can achieve rapid results in the fight against climate change, according to the report of the International Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC).

According to experts, the fossil fuel sector has the greatest potential to reduce methane emissions, including by repairing leaky pipelines and gas storage facilities, which can often be done at low cost.