TheCable

US President Joe Biden says 32 countries have joined the United States in a pledge to reduce methane emissions, in an effort to set new targets to slow global warming before the United Nations climate change conference in Glasgow.

Biden said this on Monday, adding that the pledge which was developed with the European Union commits nations to cut 30 percent emissions from methane by 2030.

Methane is one of the most prevalent greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide. However it is stronger in the short term in its ability to heat the planet. It is primarily found in natural gas and can also be released into the atmosphere from landfills and livestock.

Meanwhile, China, India, Russia and Brazil, the four heaviest emitters of methane have not joined the pledge, but the Biden administration announced that nine of the world’s top 20 methane polluters had signed on. 

The countries include: Nigeria, Canada, Indonesia, Pakistan, Mexico, Argentina and Iraq.

The Biden administration also announced that 20 philanthropies had pledged commitments of $223 million to support countries’ plans for the methane pledge.

The pledges come a few weeks before world leaders gather at the United Nations conference in Scotland, which is aimed at persuading nations to slow global warming to prevent temperatures rising above 1.5 degrees Celsius.

John Kerry, Biden’s climate envoy, said cutting methane is the “single fastest strategy that we have to keep a safer, 1.5-degree Centigrade future within reach”.