Two years on from the Global Methane Pledge, signed by 150 nations, including the UK, the need for action on methane has become more urgent. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, almost 30 times stronger than CO2 over a hundred year timescale. It has been responsible for 0.5°C of global warming to date. But, because it is short lived in the atmosphere, cutting more methane now could rapidly slow down climate change and fend off irreversible climate tipping points. So why doesn’t it get the political attention it deserves?
Action on methane is flagging
The Global Methane Pledge was to cut the world’s methane emissions by 30 per cent by 2030. But, extrapolating the quantified plans of a few leading countries to all the signatories – which exclude China, the largest global emitter of methane – reveals emissions would only fall 15 per cent by 2030.
The UK’s ambition lags behind the EU, South Korea or Canada, with domestic methane emissions expected to fall by only 19 per cent by 2030 even if we implement all of the government’s planned policies. To meet the pledge’s 30 per cent goal for the whole world, its signatories and China would together have to raise ambitions above the target and reduce their emissions by 44 per cent by 2030.
Easy measures are overlooked
New technologies and practices mean more significant cuts to methane emissions could easily be made in the agriculture, waste and energy sectors. In farming, a combination of methane suppressing feed additives for cattle, using methane from slurry on farms and adjusting our diets to eat more fruits, vegetables and alternative proteins could lead to a 15 per cent reduction in emissions by 2030. Even greater cuts are possible in the waste sector, where further reforms to landfill practices could lead to a 19 per cent emissions reduction by 2030.
Oil and gas extraction in the North Sea emits methane through wasteful venting and flaring (where the waste gas is either directly released to the atmosphere or burned off). Norway ended these highly polluting practices 52 years ago, but they are still carried out across rigs in the North Sea. The government has committed to ban routine venting and flaring in 2030, but that is five years later than recommended by the Climate Change Committee and the Mission Zero Review. The International Energy Agency has demonstrated that there are no technical barriers to ending routine venting and flaring.
Our analysis of sites in the North Sea identified 14 super polluting hubs which account for a third of all flaring and two thirds of all venting, despite only producing 0.2 per cent of the North Sea’s gas. These sites are due to end production by 2030 but should be closed sooner as they are uneconomic and highly polluting. Bringing forward the ban to 2025 would mean methane captured in more productive sites across the North Sea could bring 2.5 times the amount of gas onto the market than what might be lost by closing the most polluting sites. This gas, if captured, would reduce the need for imports and could supply 140,000 homes, a city the size of Aberdeen.
Delay is edging us towards climate tipping points
As China recently released its methane action plan and other countries are set to follow at COP28 next month, UK ambition to cut methane risks falling behind. Impressive strides were made by the UK between 1990 and 2005, but that has since stalled and we can’t continue to trade on past success to maintain the claim that we are a global climate leader.
Each day spent wavering on this is a step towards climate tipping points, where irreversible environmental damage will be triggered. Recent science indicates these thresholds could be reached below 2°C of warming. Average temperatures are now 1.1 to 1.3°C warmer than pre-industrial levels; dangerously close to the tipping points and the internationally agreed limit of 1.5°C of warming.
Cutting methane now could reduce average temperatures by 0.2°C and would help us stay within the international climate targets. If it wanted to, the UK could forge ahead: signing the Global Methane Pledge was a start but COP28 is the moment to turn that commitment into action. The government should bring a specific and quantified action plan to the methane ministerial at COP28 on 4 December. Green Alliance has presented some of the simple steps it should take to get there.
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