The report puts “a lot of pressure on the world to step up its game on methane,” said IPCC report reviewer Durwood Zaelke, president of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development in Washington, DC.
“Cutting methane is the single biggest and fastest strategy for slowing down warming,” Zaelke said.
BUT WHY METHANE NOW?
Today’s average global temperature is already 1.1 degree Celsius higher than the preindustrial average, thanks to emissions pumped into the air since the mid-1800s. But the world would have seen an additional 0.5 degree Celsius of warming, had skies not been filled with pollution reflecting some of the sun’s radiation back out into space, the report says.
As the world shifts away from fossil fuels and tackles air pollution, those aerosols will disappear – and temperatures could spike.
Quickly reducing methane could “counteract” this effect, while also improving air quality, said IPCC report summary author Maisa Rojas Corradi, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Chile.
On a global scale, methane emissions are responsible for around 30 per cent of warming since the pre-industrial era, according to the United Nations.
But the role of methane, aerosols and other short-lived climate pollutants had not been discussed by the IPCC until now.
“The report draws attention to the immediate benefits of significant reductions in methane, both from an atmospheric concentration point of view, but also the co-benefits to human health from improved air quality,” said Jane Lubchenco, deputy director for climate and environment at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
METHANE MOMENTUM
Updates in technology and recent research suggest that methane emissions from oil and gas production, landfills and livestock have likely been underestimated.
The report sends a loud signal to countries that produce and consume oil and gas that they need to incorporate “aggressive oil and gas methane reduction plans into their own climate strategies,” said Mark Brownstein, senior vice president of energy at Environmental Defense Fund.
