Thursday marked the first day of the COP30 leaders summit in Belém, Brazil — the high-level prelude to next week’s official talks — and methane is already coming in hot. Fitting, since it’s the gas heating the planet the fastest.
Two major initiatives were rolled out on Thursday to tackle methane from two fronts: fossil fuels and rice. Bloomberg Philanthropies announced a $100 million investment to cut methane leaks from the oil and gas industry. The Global Methane Hub — a coalition of philanthropies and organizations working to slash methane emissions by 35% by 2030 — is a partner on Bloomberg’s investment, and also has committed $30 million to the new Rice Methane Innovation Accelerator to speed up research and deployment of low-emission rice farming.
Methane accounts for about 30% of current global warming. It is far more potent than carbon dioxide but lingers in the atmosphere for a shorter time — making it one of the fastest ways to slow temperature rise if emissions are reduced. Cutting global methane by 30% by 2030 would have a similar impact to removing 10 gigatons of CO2 — the equivalent of shutting more than 2,000 coal plants.