COP26: Over 80 countries sign ‘game changing’ methane pledge
- US and EU leaders flagged the need to tackle methane emissions as crucial to limiting global warming to 1.5C
- Around 120 world leaders and thousands of delegates are attending the UN's COP26 climate summit in Glasgow
- A UN report released earlier this year called for urgent steps to reduce methane emissions
More than 80 countries have pledged to cut methane emissions by 30% by the end of 2030 as the United States and European Union flagged the need to tackle the greenhouse gas as crucial to limiting global warming to 1.5C. US President Joe Biden, while addressing the COP26 conference in Glasgow, Scotland, thanked nations that had signed the “game-changing commitment.” He also mentioned specific steps the US would take to do its bit for the cuts, including getting the Environmental Protection Agency and Department for Transportation to work on reducing methane emission from new and existing oil and gas pipelines.
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Biden said his administration would also work with farmers and ranchers to reduce methane emissions.
“This isn’t just something we have to do to protect the environment for the future, it’s an enormous opportunity,” he said
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said cutting back on methane emissions “is one of the most effective things we can do” to stick to a 1.5C rise in global average temperatures.
“We cannot wait for 2050, we have to cut emissions fast,” she said. “It is the lowest hanging fruit.”
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She stressed focus on the energy sector as the “greatest potential” for curbing methane levels, while announcing the global methane pledge.
Around 120 world leaders and thousands of delegates are attending the 26th Conference of Parties (COP26) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
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A UN report released earlier this year called for “urgent steps” to reduce methane emissions if global warming is to be kept within a limit laid down in the 2015 Paris agreement on climate change.
The report, called a “code red for humanity,” showed that the global warming was accelerating at a faster rate than previously thought.
The COP26 conference comes as extreme weather disasters have wreaked havoc in the US, Europe, and China this year.
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