Nearly 90 countries have joined the Global Pledge on Methane, the US-EU initiative to reduce emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, by 30% by 2030 compared to 2020 levels. It aims to tackle one of the main causes of climate change, a senior official in the administration of the President of the United States, Joe Biden, said.
The association will be officially launched this Tuesday as part of the COP26. The Global Methane Commitment, which was first announced in September, now includes half of the top 30 methane emitters, which make up two-thirds of the global economy, according to administration official Biden. Among the new signatories announced on Tuesday is Brazil, one of the five largest emitters of methane in the world.
China, Russia and India, which are also the top five emitters of methane, they did not sign the pledge. All of these countries have been included in a list identified as targets to join the pledge, Reuters previously reported.
Since it was first announced in September with a handful of signatories, the United States and the European Union have worked to get the world’s largest emitters of methane to join the partnership.
Methane is the main greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide. It has a higher heat capture potential than CO2, but it breaks down faster in the atmosphere, which means that reducing methane emissions can have a quick impact on controlling global warming.
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