What’s the news?
● Leaders at the CoP26 global climate conference in Glasgow have pledged to stop
deforestation by the end of the decade and slash emissions of the potent greenhouse
gas methane to help slow climate change.
● Nearly 90 countries have joined a U.S.-and EU-led effort to slash emissions of methane
30% by 2030 from 2020 levels.
COP26: Pledge by Leaders
● CoP26 aims to keep alive a receding target of capping global warming at 1.5 degrees
Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels to avert still greater damage from
the intensified heatwaves, droughts, storms, floods and coastal damage that climate
change is already causing.
● The Global Methane Pledge, first announced in September, now covers emissions
from two-thirds of the global economy.
● Under the agreement, 12 countries pledged to provide $12billion of public funding
between 2021 and 2025 for developing countries to restore degraded land and tackle
wildfires.
● Among the signatories, Brazil is one of the five biggest emitters of methane, which is
generated in cows’ digestive systems, in landfill waste and in oil and gas production.
● Three others China, Russia and India have not signed up, while Australia has said it
will not back the pledge.
● Brazil, which has cleared vast swathes of the Amazon rainforest, did make a new
commitment to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030, compared with a
previous pledge of 43%.
● Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the first time set out a target date for India, heavily
reliant on coal, to reduce its carbon emissions to a level it can absorb, albeit only in
2070 -20 years beyond the U.N.’s global recommendation.
● At least $7.2 billion will come from private sector investors representing $8.7 trillion
in assets under management,who also pledged to stop investing in activities linked to
deforestation such as cattle, palm oil and soybean farming and pulp production.
Estimates of Lost Forests
● According to WRI’s Global Forest Watch, in 2020, the world lost 258,000 sq km
(100,000 sq miles) of forest, an area larger than the United Kingdom.
● Eg: The conservation charity WWF estimates that 27 football fields of forest are lost
every minute.
● More than 100 national leaders pledged to halt and reverse deforestation and land
degradation by the end of the decade, underpinned by $19 billion in public and private
funds to invest in protecting and restoring forests.
● The agreement vastly expands a commitment made by 40 countries as part of the 2014
New York Declaration of Forests,and promises more resources.

About Methane
● Methane is more short-lived in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide but 80 times more
potent in warming the earth.
● Cutting emissions of the gas, which is estimated to have accounted for 30% of global
warming since pre-industrial times, is one of the most effective ways of slowing climate
change.
● Methane is an invisible and odourless gas and is a hydrocarbon and a primary
component of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
Sources of Methane
● It is emitted from a variety of human as well as natural sources.
● Some of these sources are landfills, oil and natural gas systems, agricultural
activities, coal mining, stationary and mobile combustion, wastewater treatment
and certain industrial processes.
Top Methane emitting Countries
● The United States and the European Union (EU) account for more than a one third of
global consumption of natural gas followed by Brazil, Russia, China, Indonesia,
Nigeria, Mexico and India.
CO2 V/S CH4
● A single CO2 molecule causes less warming than a methane molecule, but lingers for
hundreds of years in the atmosphere whereas methane disappears within two
decades (short-lived climate pollutant).

https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/explained-where-does-in
dia-stand-on-methane-emissions/article37362589.ece