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The US and EU launched a global drive 17 September to reduce 30%
of the world's methane emissions from 2020 levels by the decade's
end in response to recent UN studies that say such cuts can help
meet the Paris Agreement using existing technologies.
Announcing the global methane pledge at the
virtual Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, US President
Joe Biden said the initiative would not only rapidly reduce the
rate of global warming, but also will result in a side benefit of
improving public health and agricultural output.
Methane, though a short-lived GHG, has a global warming
potential that is 86 times that of CO2 over a 20-year span.
Biden said the recent findings of the new Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change study represents "a code red for humanity" and that the
window for acting on climate change is narrowing.
"We don't have a lot of time," he said.
A UN analysis of updated national climate plans, or nationally
determined contributions (NDCs) submitted to meet the Paris
Agreement on climate that was released 17 September said wealthy
nations need to do more to address climate change.
"Unless climate action is taken immediately, it may lead to a
temperature rise of about 2.7 degrees Celsius, by the end of this
century," the UN said in a release.
The analysis includes updates to the NDCs of 113 countries that
represent around 49% of global emissions, including the nations of
the EU and the US.
Those countries overall expect their greenhouse gas emissions to
decrease by 12% in 2030 compared to 2010, but UN Secretary General
António Guterres said these plans are insufficient and need to be
strengthened.
A day earlier, the UN released a multiagency "United in Science" report on
climate, which said reductions in atmospheric methane in the short
term could support reaching the goals of the Paris Agreement.
GHGs continue to increase
The report also said concentrations of major GHGs—CO2,
methane, and nitrous oxide—continued to increase through 2020
and the first half of 2021.
Gutteres said the 16 September report "shows how off course we
are" from the 2015 Paris Agreement of limiting global warming to
1.5 degrees Celsius compared with pre-industrial levels.
"We believe the collective goal is both ambitious but realistic.
And we urge you to join us in announcing this pledge at COP26,"
Biden told the more than a dozen heads of state, special envoys,
and ministers participating in the forum.
These included the leaders of Argentina, Bangladesh, the EU, the
European Council, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, and
the UK along with special envoys from China and the Russian
Federation. Germany and India's ministers of environment attended
too.
EU President Ursula von der Leyen agreed, saying "let's boost up
the Methane Reduction Alliance" in a 17 September tweet.
"The International Energy Agency reckons the world already
possesses the know-how and technology to avoid as much as three
quarters of the current emissions of methane, that's CH4, produced
by the oil and gas industry," UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said
in prepared remarks, adding that
his country has reduced methane emissions by about 60%.
Johnson agreed with Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
Wajid, who said developing nations, such as her country—perched
atop the Bay of Bengal, are on the front line of climate
change.
"They don't lack the will, they don't lack the technologies, to
make a difference, they simply lack the resources," he said,
calling on G20 leaders to help those less fortunate.
Welcoming the global methane pledge, Italian President Mario
Draghi, in a YouTube video as the White House didn't air
speeches from other leaders, called for a shared understanding of
the need to reduce all GHGs significantly, including methane.
But, he added, "we cannot do this alone."
Existing technologies can reach 30% cuts
Current emissions of methane—95% of which come from fossil
fuels, waste, and livestock—are growing rapidly and will not
allow the world to reach the 1.5 degrees C goal, according to a
joint UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and Climate and Clean Air
Coalition (CCAC) study released in early May.
This study concluded that technologies
currently exist that can capture about 30% of the methane emissions
from oil and natural gas operations, coal mining, wastewater
treatment processes, and landfills as well as manage methane
releases from rice cultivation, manure, and enteric fermentation,
or microbial digestion of food inside livestock.
Biden said the US is doing its part to take actions to limit
methane releases.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is rewriting
separate rules to limit and cap methane releases from extracting,
processing, distributing, and transporting oil and gas products
from new plus existing operations. Both proposals, which were due
in September, are expected to be released in October.
In August, the US Department of Treasury, as a result of a Biden
climate finance order in May, directed all multilateral
development banks in which it has a say to finance methane
reduction as well as carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS) at
existing fossil fuel projects.
A bill currently being debated in
the US House of Representatives that would implement significant
portions of Biden's Build Back Better plan includes
a methane fee for producers of oil and gas as well as companies
involved in transportation and storage of these fossil fuels for
allowing releases of this GHG. The legislation, which will be
folded into a budget reconciliation measure, will be taken up by
the House in the coming days along with a bipartisan infrastructure
bill.
An analysis by the US Senate
Majority Leader's office showed the US can easily reach 9.1% of its
goal of halving GHGs by 2030 if the US Congress adopts the methane
fee provision included in the reconciliation measure.
"Full of sound and fury"
Both allies and critics of the Biden administration viewed the
announcement with mixed sentiments.
Clint Woods, a policy fellow for regulations with the
libertarian Americans for Prosperity and a former EPA deputy
assistant administrator for air and radiation, dismissed the global
pledge, calling it "full of sound and fury, signifying a
nothingburger."
"It's tough to have a policy rollout by unaccountable climate
czars, on the eve of [New York Climate Week] and as a prelude to
COP26. The action is both feckless and unconstitutional, but
they've done it," Woods told Net-Zero Business Daily.
In contrast, the Sierra Club came at it from a different angle,
saying the US can do more to cut up to 65% of methane
emissions.
"Global targets are a good first step, but this is not enough:
the real solution to the climate crisis is stopping the expansion
of the oil and gas industry and swiftly transitioning to clean
energy that is accessible to all," Kelly Sheehan Martin, senior
director of Sierra Club's energy campaigns, said in a 17 September
statement.
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