More nations join methane pact
More than 150 countries have now signed up to a global pact to reduce methane emissions, some 50 more than signed on when the initiative launched last year, the United States and European Union announced yesterday.
The pledge to cut emissions of the powerful greenhouse gas 30 percent this decade is seen as critical to global efforts to limit planetary warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, a threshold scientists say must be maintained to avoid the worst of climate change.
The United States and the EU launched the Global Methane Pledge during the Glasgow climate talks last year.
"As of today, we will have 95 percent of countries that have included methane in their nationally determined contributions," Rich Duke, US deputy special envoy on climate change, told Reuters ahead of the announcement, referring to the promises countries make to slash emissions.
China and India, the top two methane emitters, have not signed up for the pact, he said.
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