International Effort to Curb Emissions of a Climate Super Pollutant Falls Short, UN Report Reveals

Methane emissions continue to climb despite a pledge by countries to curb climate pollution.

Despite the efforts of more than half of all countries worldwide to curb a key climate super-pollutant, a report released this week by the United Nations Environment Programme at the U.N. climate summit shows that global methane emissions continue to climb at a troubling pace.

The report was the first worldwide assessment of the Global Methane Pledge, an effort to curb methane emissions, since the United States and the European Union launched the initiative during the U.N.’s annual Conference of the Parties climate summit in Glasgow in 2021. 

Methane—a potent greenhouse gas and the second leading driver of climate change after carbon dioxide—is responsible for approximately one-third of human-caused warming to date. The U.S. remains part of the non-binding pledge but has rolled back methane regulations under President Donald Trump.

Curbing methane emissions is widely considered the most expedient way to combat climate change. Unlike carbon dioxide, which can remain in the atmosphere for centuries, methane only sticks around for approximately 12 years. The primary sources of methane pollution are agriculture, oil and gas infrastructure and landfills.

Countries that signed the pledge agreed to collectively reduce global methane emissions from human activity at least 30 percent by 2030, compared to 2020 levels. Now, nearly halfway to the pledge’s endpoint, global methane emissions are instead on track to increase 5 percent by the end of the decade.

If the 159 countries that signed the pledge follow through on that commitment, or similar promises made under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, methane emissions would decrease just 8 percent by 2030, far short of the 30 percent goal, the report found. Three of the largest emitters—China, India and Russia—have not signed the methane pledge.

The report findings came as leaders from around the globe gathered for the COP30 talks in Belém, Brazil.

“We have to act much faster,” said Martina Otto, head of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition, a UN Environment Programme initiative that oversees the Global Methane Pledge.

If global methane emissions increase 5 percent by 2030, as currently projected under existing environmental regulations rather than non-binding pledges, the additional pollution would drive climate damage with significant negative impacts. The added methane would contribute to nearly 24,000 premature deaths and 2.5 million metric tons of crop losses annually by 2030, according to the report. The increased emissions would also cause up to $43 billion in economic damage per year by 2030, the report found. 

The agricultural and waste sectors are projected to see the most significant increases in methane emissions, driven by larger anticipated livestock herds and higher waste generation due to expanding populations and economic growth. New waste management regulations in Europe and North America, along with slow growth in natural gas markets, led to a lower-than-expected increase in human-caused methane emissions, according to the report. 

The energy sector, meanwhile, offers the best opportunity for low-cost methane emission reductions, as methane is the primary component of natural gas.

As the planet warms, natural releases of methane from wetlands and melting permafrost have increased. That suggests greater reductions in methane pollution from human activity may be needed to combat climate change.

Regulations enacted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2023 were projected to reduce methane emissions from the country’s oil and gas sector by nearly 80 percent compared to future emissions expected without the rule. In November 2024, the Biden administration placed a fee on excessive methane emissions from the oil and gas industry to further curb emissions. The following month, the Biden administration went beyond the 30 percent target set by the Global Methane Pledge and, under the Paris climate agreement, committed to reducing methane emissions across all sectors of the U.S. economy by 35 percent from 2005 levels.

However, Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement on his first day in office in January and signed legislation repealing the U.S. methane fee in March. In July, the EPA extended deadlines for the oil and gas industry to limit emissions of methane and other harmful pollutants.

Now, U.S. officials are urging Europe, one of the largest importers of natural gas, to ease its own environmental regulations. The EU Methane Regulation, approved by the European Commission, will require energy imports to the European Union to meet methane emission thresholds starting in 2030.

The requirement could pose a problem for U.S. liquified natural gas exports to Europe, given the recent rollbacks of U.S. methane regulations. U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum traveled to Greece earlier this month in the latest effort to lobby for the use of fossil fuels. “We want to bring as much energy by ship as we can,” Wright told Greek Public Television at the Partnership for Transatlantic Energy Cooperation summit in Athens.

“Both of us are very worried about the EU regulations, which actually are increasing costs, [and] slowing down investment,” Burgum said at the summit.

On a trip to Italy and Belgium in September, Wright said he and Burgum would discuss with EU leaders barriers that were “needlessly in the way of bringing more energy into Europe.”

The U.S. Department of Energy did not respond to a request for comment on the outcome of those discussions.

Following the September trip, the London-based Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change sent a letter on behalf of 44 leading investors, who manage over €4.85 trillion in assets, to the European Commission, urging the body to maintain the EU Methane Regulation.

Tommaso Mazzanti, a spokesperson for the investors group, said that to the best of his knowledge, the methane regulation remains intact. “We are not aware of any plans to change, delay, or weaken the regulation, but cannot speak to the Commission’s future intentions,” Mazzanti said in an email.

A spokesperson for the European Commission said it stands by the regulation and is confident the requirement does not pose any barriers to energy trade.

“We are aware of the concerns raised by the U.S. administration and we keep engaging with them on the implementation of the regulation,” the spokesperson said in a written statement.

The extent to which the EU and others rein in emissions of the super pollutant will have big implications for the world.

“Cutting [methane] is one of the fastest and most cost-effective ways to slow climate change, making it our climate emergency brake,” said Otto, with the U.N. initiative overseeing the global pledge. “Every ton of methane we avoid delivers cleaner air, stronger communities and a safer climate future.”

Cover photo: A cyclist passes a landfill, a known emitter of Methane, on Jan. 21 in Barisal, Bangladesh. Credit: Niamul Rifat/Anadolu via Getty Images