Global Methane Pledge - statistics & facts
Methane had long been overlooked in the conversation around climate change, with much of the focus going toward carbon dioxide. However, this short-lived climate pollutant has a global warming potential roughly 28 times greater than carbon dioxide over a 100-year period. In fact, experts believe that human-caused methane emissions, which have increased more than 30 percent since 1990, are responsible for around one-third of net global warming since the Industrial Revolution. The growing concerns over rising methane emissions led to the launch of the Global Methane Pledge, the first-ever global political commitment to address this powerful greenhouse gas. With more than 150 participants as of 2024, the Global Methane Pledge includes some of the world’s largest methane emitters.
According to the UNECE, delivering the goals currently set in the Global Methane Pledge could reduce global warming by at least 0.2 degrees Celsius by 2050.
What is the Global Methane Pledge?
The United States and the European Union launched the groundbreaking Global Methane Pledge on November 2, 2021, during COP26. By joining this voluntary framework, participants commit to work together in order to collectively reduce global methane emissions by at least 30 percent by 2030 below 2020 levels, across all sectors. While the main aim of the pledge is reducing near-term warming and keep a 1.5-degrees-Celsius warming limit within reach, there are other societal and environmental benefits from mitigating methane emissions. As well as being a climate polluter, methane is also a precursor to ground-level ozone pollution. Thus, tackling methane emissions is expected to not only bring climate benefits but also improve air quality and prevent thousands of air pollution-related premature deaths.A step in the right direction
The Global Methane Pledge was a major step forward in addressing the second-biggest contributor to global warming after carbon dioxide. Since the pledge’s launch, the number of countries integrating a separate methane target or mitigation potential in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) as of 2024 had more than quadrupled. Average annual methane abatement finance flows have also moved in the right direction since the Global Methane Pledge launched, though they will need to increase substantially over the next decades.According to the UNECE, delivering the goals currently set in the Global Methane Pledge could reduce global warming by at least 0.2 degrees Celsius by 2050.
