US, EU Pledge 30% Cut In Methane Emissions To Limit Global Heating

The US and the EU made a joint pledge on Friday to cut global methane emissions by almost a third in the next decade, in what climate experts hailed as one of the most significant steps yet towards fulfilling the Paris climate agreement. The Guardian reports: Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, about 80 times more effective at trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, and emissions have been rising in recent years. Natural gas production and fracking, meat production and other forms of agriculture are among the chief sources. The pact between the US and the EU sets a target of cutting at least 30% from global methane emissions, based on 2020 levels, by 2030. If adopted around the world, this would reduce global heating by 0.2C by the 2040s, compared with likely temperature rises by then. The world is now about 1.2C hotter now than in pre-industrial times.

The UN published a report on Friday that found current pledges on emissions from national governments would result in an increase of 16% in emissions in 2030 compared with 2010 levels, whereas scientists warn that emissions must fall by 45% in that period to stay within 1.5C. The OECD also published a report on Friday showing that climate finance -- funding from private and public sources that flows from the rich world to developing countries, to help them cut emissions and cope with the impacts of extreme weather -- was falling about $20 billion short of a longstanding target of $100 billion a year.

Step one

[Ol Olsoc]

Beans will be outlawed.

Re:

[Ostracus]

Ah, Bean and Jerry will still be in business. 54 different flavors.

Re:

[Ol Olsoc]

Ah, Bean and Jerry will still be in business. 54 different flavors.

Onion farts, baked bean farts, or veggies and beer farts? All those flavors sounds like something that would be on urban dictionary

Re:

[Aighearach]

hurr durr, now look up which chemical makes that smell you love to sniff.

Re:

[CaptQuark]

That's the right idea but it's not humans eating beans that causes the problems. It's livestock that produce the biggest methane problems.

When livestock and manure emissions are combined, the Agriculture sector is the largest source of methane emissions in the United States. Methane Emmissions [epa.gov]

Methane is more than 25 times as potent as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere. Over the last two centuries, methane concentrations in the atmosphere have more than doubled, largely due to human-related

Re:

[TonyBeals]

Of course, this is good news, but to really have a great effect, it is worth stopping the methane emission altogether. Our planet has been polluted with various filth for so many years. What is one war worth? I read a lot of essays on World War on https://studymoose.com/world-w... [studymoose.com] and realized that the Second World War had a decisive impact on the emergence of global environmental problems of today. It gave rise to environmental problems on a global scale: chemicalization of industrial production, the use o

MJ: Smooth Criminal.

[Ostracus]

The OECD also published a report on Friday showing that climate finance -- funding from private and public sources that flows from the rich world to developing countries, to help them cut emissions and cope with the impacts of extreme weather -- was falling about $20 billion short of a longstanding target of $100 billion a year.

And make sure corruption in the system doesn't walk away with the rest.

Re:

[iggymanz]

That's nonsense, of course the money will be wasted. Building alternative energy is the only solution, not taxation, carbon credits (major source of scam), not handouts, certainly not capture which can't scale beyond gnat's fart in hurricane.

Re:

[PopeRatzo]

And make sure corruption in the system doesn't walk away with the rest.

Unlike the fossil fuel industry, which we all know has been nothing if not corruption-free.

Carbon Capture

[sonicmerlin]

This is too slow and not enough. We're probably going to need some major global deployment of carbon capture technology to keep the world from getting too warm. It's a shame there are so many conspiracy nuts and greedy nihilists who slow progress down.

Re:

[iggymanz]

Nope, carbon capture is a boondoggle that can't be scaled to anything meaningful. We'll just have to get our energy from noncarbon sources, which is a solved engineering problem for capture, storage and long distance transmission. That's where money should be spent.

Re:

[Z80a]

There's no magic bullet to solve this issue, but you can shoot a lot of "less effective bullets" to mitigate it.
Or just fill the ocean with some mutant super carbon absorbing algae.

Re:

[Tokolosh]

Good luck outlawing the Laws of Thermodynamics.

Meanwhile:

[storkus]

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/1... [cnbc.com]

I must've used a bad search term because I couldn't find the appropriate /. story.

Related to this, as the USA & Canada are now gas exporting countries, the domestic prices have more than doubled here. The pipeline hacks aren't helping either.

Bottom line: everyone went to NatGas (90% methane) as a "clean" fuel, but now?...

Re:

[thegarbz]

You know that burning natgas and releasing it into the atmosphere are not the same thing right? The hint is in highschool chemistry:
CH4 + 2O2 CO2 + 2H2O

Burning natural gas all over the world releases about half the emissions of methane than that what is trickling out of landfills. Actually burning doesn't, not properly burning does. In fact it's less than 30% of the emissions of agriculture which is just one of many sources along side that released from burning coal and a real low hanging fruit: incidental

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

You're ignoring all the well and pipeline leaks.

Easy

[PinkyGigglebrain]

If all US cattle are required to be fed the grasses they are adapted to digest a huge amount of the USA's methane emissions could be eliminated. Its the grains they are given that cause the large methane production people complain about.

Its a lot easier and humane than some of the ideas I've heard proposed to reduce the emissions from cattle

Re: Easy

[q_e_t]

Grass fed produces 20% more methane. The methane is a byproduct of bacteria that break down cellulose which is a greater fraction of the food inputs with grass.

Just limit political promises

[Opportunist]

And the emission of hot air should go back by at least 50%.

Too little, too late

[gmuslera]

Warming has been uneven around the globe, and the Arctic region is between the most affected ones. And that is creating a ticking methane bomb [smithsonianmag.com] that is already releasing massive amounts of methane. Once you reach the tipping point of that positive feedback loop the amount of methane in the atmosphere will still increase, even with 100% cut of emissions by most countries. Strong action should had been taken decades ago, when this was already evident to eventually happen. Now you have to deal with what you should have been done back then (that is now far bigger because now there are more industries that emits, and in bigger amounts), plus the extra load of what the consequences of delayed action does.

Big fat hairy deal.

[Qbertino]

I'm getting tired of these "pledges" to cut output of climate gas X by Y percent by some decade(s) in the future. This is non-sense and everyone knows it. We have to get an eco-turnaround going ASAP, we're decades late already. This pledge-bullsh*t is just shuffling deck chairs on the titanic at this point.

Nice, but UK not the real issue

[WindBourne]

6 nations emit 50% of methane emissions. [worldbank.org]
China: 1,238,630 (kt of CO2 equivalence)
Russia: 849,570
India: 666,510
America: 622,590
Brazil: 416,280
Indonesia: 287,500
---
Total: 4081080 out of 8,174,420.

Uk, at 51,210, is a fart in a gail wind.

It is good that America is dropping ours, but we need ALL nations, esp. these 6, to drop theirs as well.

Side effects

[groobly]

Most industrial methane is produced as a byproduct of petroleum mining or distillation. The easiest cheapest way to prevent it from entering the atmosphere is to burn it off.

Time to face reality

[Tokolosh]

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is not going to solve the problem. The sooner we start researching and implementing alternatives, the better.

Methane emissions are not measured well

[presidenteloco]

There are huge discrepencies, for example, between satellite-measured emissions from an oil and gas production area compared to company-reported emissions. Like, order-of-magnitude differences. So it would seem that getting accurate measurements (or choosing and using a reliable measurement methodology) would be an integral part of claiming you had reduced emissions 30%. Otherwise this is just more hot air.