Huge spending needed to decrease methane from the world

According to a report from the Climate Policy Initiative, a tenfold increase in methane abatement spending is needed to sharply cut global emissions of the potent greenhouse gas and avoid the worst of climate change.

The world needs to dramatically ramp up spending tenfold to $110 billion a year to curb methane releases.

The potent greenhouse gas is responsible for nearly half of net global warming to date, yet just 2% of global climate finance is directed towards curbing releases of the gas.

The biggest opportunity to mitigate emissions are from oil, gas and coal operations, and those cuts are crucial to maintaining a pathway to prevent global warming from surpassing 1.5 degrees Celsius, the analysis found. But just $100 million of the $11 billion currently directed toward abating methane goes to mitigating leaks and releases from the sector, according to investment figures tracked by CPI. Almost two-thirds goes towards the waste sector.

Methane, which is the primary component of natural gas, has 84 times the warming power of carbon dioxide during its first 20 years in the atmosphere. Agriculture and livestock are the largest contributors to methane generated from human activity, followed by fossil fuels and waste.

Using all available technologies to cut methane emissions and flaring from the oil and gas sector alone can avoid nearly 0.1 degrees Celsius of warming by mid-century.