Global Methane Pledge

The Global Methane Pledge was launched at the UNFCCC COP26 held in Glasgow in November 2021. Around 90 countries have placed their pledges. The Global Methane Pledge was initiated by USA And European Union.

About Global Methane Pledge

Under the pledge, the countries have promised to reduce methane emissions by 30% by 2030 as compared to 2020 levels. The pledge will help to reduce the global heating by 0.2 degrees Celsius by 2040 as compared to 2020. Currently, the world is 1.2 degrees hotter as compared to the pre-industrial times.

Need for the Global Methane Pledge

The United Nations says that around 25% of the current global warming is caused by methane. Methane is the second most abundant greenhouse gas next to carbon dioxide. It accounts to half of the current day temperature increase as compared to the pre-industrial levels. Methane is a short-lived gas (12 years) in the atmosphere. However, methane absorbs more energy when it is in the atmosphere. It has global warming potential 80 times greater than carbon dioxide.

Benefits

The pledge will help to abide the targets of Paris Climate deal. Reduction of methane is believed to be the single most effective strategy to keep the temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius as per the Paris Agreement.

Obstacles in the implementation of pledge

The United Nations and several other international organizations have come up with initiatives similar to that of Global Methane Pledge. Their actions are adequate. However, the problem lies in the implementation. The developed countries should come forward to support the developing countries by providing money and technology in order to facilitate the adaptations towards the changing environment. Take Kyoto Protocol for instance. Hardly any amount of money or technologies were transferred. In 2009 and 2020 the USA allocated 100 billion USD as climate finance to the developing countries. The developed countries claim that the sum is already flowing. However, according to the developing countries the money that dresses up climate finance is actually the funds that are pre-existing or the money that is flowing for other purposes. Nationalistic interests are never kept aside when developed countries allocate such funds to the developing countries. These trends should be changed to break the obstacles  in implementing the pledge.