In the race to curb rising global temperatures and emissions, reducing methane offers the world a "climate emergency break," said Martina Otto, head of the UN Climate and Clean Air Coalition. 

Although more short-lived in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, methane is over 80 times more potent at trapping heat over a 20-year time span and is responsible for around a third of global warming.  
 
And while recent years have seen some progress in reducing the amount of the gas escaping into the atmosphere, the world needs to rapidly accelerate these efforts, according to a new UN report. 

Progress on methane in recent years  

The report marks a stocktake on how much progress the world has made since the launch of the Global Methane Pledge at the 2021 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland.  

Since then, almost 160 nations have signed up, agreeing to cut methane 30% by 2030 over 2020 levels. This goal is aligned with the Paris Agreement target of limiting global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit).  

The last five years has seen "unparalleled global attention and action on methane," said Dan Jorgensen, EU commissioner for energy and housing.  

He said this included a growing number of countries developing action plans to reduce emissions of the potent gas, as well as an increasing commitment from industry. Companies across 90 countries, have signed up to the UN's methane reporting and measurement program.  

Nevertheless, methane emissions are still rising and under current legislation, the report suggests they will increase a further 5% by 2030 and 21% by 2050, compared to 2020 levels. But they would have increased even further, were it not for the global pledge.  

The report attributes the decelerating emissions trajectory to both a slowdown in gas market growth and new regulation — including some introduced by the European Union last year forcing fossil fuel companies to better monitor and report their methane emissions.  

Around 65% of countries that submitted their new climate action plans to the UN by June this year included measures targeting methane — an increase of almost 40% compared to 2020. If fully implemented, these plans could help reduce emission levels by 8%, according to the analysis.  

Though the report says this would deliver "historic progress" on methane reductions, it still falls well short of the 30% pledged in 2021.  

"We need more ambitious action than the plans. They are a good start, but we need more," said Lena Höglund-Isaksson, senior researcher at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis. 

Where does methane come from and how can emissions be cut?  

While methane is also released from natural sources such as wetlands, human activities produce some 60%.  

Around 42% of this comes from agriculture, largely from animal digestion and manure management, and 20% from decomposing waste in landfills. 

The rest is produced by the energy sector, primarily the oil and gas industries, either accidentally through leaks in damaged infrastructure or intentionally through venting and flaring. The latter two release methane into the atmosphere during the extraction of oil and gas.  

Many countries have made improvements in reducing methane from agriculture and waste, through, for example, equipping landfills with gas recovery systems. But far more could be done in the energy sector, said Höglund-Isaksson.  

This is where there are "really big" opportunities in reducing emissions by 2030, she added.

The report estimates that 72% of the mitigation potential is in this sector, with most of it achievable at low cost. This includes measures such as introducing leak detection and repair programs, reducing emissions from underground and surface coal mines, and ensuring proper sealing techniques during mine and well closures.

Despite the affordability of technological solutions — and the potential for capturing and selling gas that may have otherwise been leaked — Höglund-Isaksson said many in the industry will not act until regulations mean they have to. "It's so much more profitable to just put the money into producing more." 

More regulation, investment and monitoring needed

Luc Powell, senior policy officer for air quality and agriculture, at the European Environmental Bureau, a network of climate NGOs, says achieving necessary methane cuts requires going beyond the voluntary nature of the 2021 global pledge. "What we need is something that is a mandatory requirement."

Although satellite monitoring of methane has improved in recent years, nearly 90% of the emissions detected still go unaddressed by governments and companies, according to the UN.  

Powell says the available information is not always used at the plant level to understand the infrastructure weak points, which not only impacts the climate, but their own profitability. "They're not seeing how much money they could be saving from reducing those leaks."

Otto at the launch of the UN report said there also needs to be more public and private investment in methane mitigation, emphasizing the benefits far exceed the costs.  

Meeting the global methane pledge would help avoid an estimated 0.2 degrees Celsius of global warming by 2050, according to the report.  

With scientists now saying it is likely inevitable the world will overshoot 1.5C in global heating, methane reduction is more important than ever, said Powell. To say it is "critical feels like an understatement," he added. 

Edited by: Tamsin Walker