Reports

Launched at CoP26 in 2021, the Global Methane Pledge (GMP) is the first global initiative focused on reducing emissions of methane - a super-pollutant responsible for about one-third of current warming.

If the UK intends to uphold its commitment to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 and demonstrate climate leadership, fast action on climate super-pollutants must be prioritised.

Methane is the second most important greenhouse gas (GHG), around 80 times more powerful than carbon-dioxide (CO2) over a 20-year period, and is responsible for a third of the global warming experienced to date. More than half of global methane emissions are anthropogenic, produced primarily by the agriculture sector (animal husbandry, land use), the waste sector (landfills and wastewater) and the energy sector (extraction and transport of fossil fuels).

What is methane and why care? Methane is a potent greenhouse gas (GHG) with significant environmental and health impacts. It warms the planet around 30 times more than Carbon Dioxide over a 100 year period and over 80 times more over a 20 year period.

The Regulation on methane emissions reductions in the energy sector (the ‘EU Methane Regulation’) will require the oil, gas and coal industries to reduce methane emissions through a package of monitoring and mitigation measures in the EU and, in the future, across the supply chain.

The global call to action on climate change is clear – to have any chance of limiting warming to 1.5°C, we must reduce global greenhouse gas emissions to at least 43 per cent below 2019 levels by 2030.1