{"id":186772,"date":"2025-10-09T00:42:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T00:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/186772\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T00:42:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T00:42:16","slug":"a-legally-binding-global-methane-agreement-will-be-difficult-to-agree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/186772\/","title":{"rendered":"A legally binding global methane agreement will be difficult to agree"},"content":{"rendered":"

With voluntary commitments to cut methane pollution floundering<\/a>, the prime minister of Barbados urged fellow leaders at the United Nations last month to draw up a \u201clegally binding global agreement\u201d to reduce emissions of the particularly potent greenhouse gas.<\/p>\n

Mia Mottley told the UN Secretary-General\u2019s Climate Summit in New York that voluntary efforts like the UAE-led Oil and Gas Decarbonisation Charter \u2013 signed by over 50 oil and gas companies \u2013 were \u201cnot enough\u201d to rein in methane. She said governments should urgently discuss a \u201cno more than two-or-three page agreement on the reduction of methane as a matter of legally binding obligations\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Barbadian leader \u2013 who has a global reputation for proposing new ideas on climate action and finance \u2013 said governments \u201cdo not need to reinvent the wheel\u201d. She suggested replicating the 1987 Montreal Protocol that has phased out the production and use of CFC and other gases found in fridges and air conditioners that were responsible for opening a hole in the Earth\u2019s ozone layer.<\/p>\n

That protocol put in place legally binding reduction targets for these chemicals, many of which are also greenhouse gases, incentivising government policies to make companies redesign their appliances.<\/p>\n

Emissions of ozone-depleting substances have since dropped by<\/a> almost 100%, and the ozone layer is closing, with Mottley calling it \u201cthe most successful climate agreement in history\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nWhy focus on methane?<\/p>\n

Methane is a short-lived greenhouse gas that is more than 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide (CO2). Experts say<\/a> cutting methane emissions is a \u201clow-hanging fruit\u201d for tackling global warming, as it would make a big difference with relatively small actions.<\/p>\n

Methane emissions come mainly from the agriculture sector (40%), the oil and gas industry (35%) and waste (20%).<\/p>\n

Since COP26 in Glasgow, 111 countries have signed up to the Global Methane Pledge<\/a> \u2013 which aims to cut methane emissions by 30% by 2030, compared to 2020 levels.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But, in its latest global tracking update in May, the International Energy Agency said methane emissions from fossil fuels remain at stubbornly high levels<\/a>. Commitments like the pledge have boosted target-setting and momentum, it added, but so far \u201cfew countries or companies have formulated real implementation plans for these commitments, and even fewer have demonstrated verifiable emissions reductions\u201d.<\/p>\n

Russia justifies fossil gas use by citing contentious COP28 loophole<\/a><\/p>\n

Mottley told the summit at UN headquarters that tightening regulation on methane emissions made sense for the planet, fossil fuel firms and farmers \u2013 and would help buy time in the short-term as countries roll out their national climate plans to cut greenhouse gases across the board.<\/p>\n

Her call was backed by French President Emmanuel Macron and Tuvalu\u2019s Prime Minister Feleti Teo, who both said in their speeches that a \u201cbinding commitment\u201d on methane is needed. \u201cWe know that this is a reachable goal,\u201d Macron said, adding that methane reduction would be a priority when France chairs the G7 next year.<\/p>\n

A more difficult challenge than ozone?<\/p>\n

But replicating the Montreal Protocol for methane will be challenging. The vast majority of ozone-depleting gases come from a relatively small number of appliances and so could be reduced relatively easily. On the other hand, methane escapes into the atmosphere from a wide variety of sources including belching cows, rice paddies, landfills, leaking gas pipelines, coal mines and oil production facilities.<\/p>\n

While some emissions can be prevented cheaply or even profitably \u2013 particularly in oil and gas production \u2013 others, like those from cows, are more expensive and politically controversial<\/a> to avoid.<\/p>\n

Durwood Zaelke, president of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development, has previously campaigned against ozone-depleting substances and is now pushing for methane cuts. He spoke alongside Mottley and Macron at a high-profile meeting on methane<\/a> in New York in late September.<\/p>\n

He told Climate Home News that getting a \u201ccoalition of the willing\u201d to agree on methane targets is more likely than persuading all the world\u2019s governments to sign up to an agreement. Countries could make their targets legally binding through their own domestic law, he said.<\/p>\n

An international agreement is possible, he added, \u201cbut it also can start from the bottom up\u201d if other governments \u2013 including sub-national ones like California and Punjab \u2013 adopted similar rules to the European Union\u2019s methane regulation.<\/p>\n

The EU requires oil and gas companies to detect and repair methane leaks and bans them from burning gas as a waste product in a process known as flaring. It is also imposing increasingly stringent methane intensity standards \u2013 opposed by the Trump administration in the US \u2013 on imported fossil fuels.<\/p>\n

Zaelke said the next step was for Barbados to try and get the rest of the Climate Vulnerable Forum \u2013 a group of around 70 Global South countries which it now chairs \u2013 and other small island states on board with the idea.<\/p>\n

He predicted that methane would have its \u201cmoment\u201d at the COP30 climate summit in Brazil, as reduction of non-CO2 gases is one of the 30 objectives of the COP30 presidency\u2019s \u201caction agenda\u201d.<\/a><\/p>\n

Mottley\u2019s proposal is expected to be discussed at the pre-COP gathering in Brasilia on October 13-14, although opposition from some countries will likely make reaching global consensus very difficult.<\/p>\n

Citing comments by UN chief Antonio Guterres that we are on \u201cthe highway to climate hell\u201d, Zaelke said: \u201cWe\u2019ve got a methane emergency brake. If you pull it and turn the wheel, you can reverse course and slow warming in the near term more than any other way. I think this is becoming clear and so we\u2019ll see the drumbeat for mandatory pick-up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With voluntary commitments to cut methane pollution floundering, the prime minister of Barbados urged fellow leaders at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186773,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-186772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}