Introducing Methane Country Projections

Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas emitted by human activities such as leakage from natural gas systems and the raising of livestock, as well as by natural sources such as wetlands. It has a direct influence on climate, but also indirectly affects human health, crop yields and the quality and productivity of vegetation through its role as an important precursor to the formation of tropospheric ozone.

Methane is a short-lived climate pollutant, and though its 12-year lifetime in the atmosphere is much shorter than carbon dioxide (CO2), it is much more efficient at trapping radiation. Per unit of mass, the impact of methane on climate change over 20 years is 86 times greater than CO2; over a 100-year period, it’s 28 times greater. But this also means that reducing methane results in rapid and massive benefits, both for people and for the planet.

At COP26 in November 2021, over 100 countries joined the Global Methane Pledge (GMP), committing to collectively cut global anthropogenic methane emissions by at least 30% by 2030 from 2020 levels. Achieving this goal would put the world on a path to limit warming to 1.5ºC.

Image

The US and the EU launched the Global Methane Pledge at COP26 in Glasgow. To date, 150 countries have joined the Pledge.

The Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) is a core implementer of the Global Methane Pledge, and as such, works with participating countries to identify resources to support methane mitigation. The CCAC stands ready to meet one-on-one with countries to discuss priorities and needs and help develop the most efficient methane mitigation strategies to realize the goals of the Pledge.

As part of its commitment to help countries plan for and achieve the Pledge, the CCAC has begun developing Methane Country Projections for countries. These are stand‐alone briefings designed as tools for communication and advocacy, as well as discussion starters in the context of the GMP. They are designed to show the scale of potential reductions and high priority targets in each country, and to help guide strategic decision‐making by GMP partners. The data used for Country Profiles is taken from international data used in the 2021 Global Methane Assessment, not from national inventories. This allows the Country Profiles to be internally consistent and comparable between countries, regions, and global assessments.

The projections are currently available to countries and upon request.

More than half of global methane emissions stem from human activities in three sectors: fossil fuels (35% of human-caused emissions), waste (20%) and agriculture (40%). To date, the CCAC has published three sample Country Projections using data from real countries. Example 1) shows a country with anthropogenic methane emissions deriving from several sectors; Example 2) show a country with methane emissions divided between the waste and agriculture sector; and Example 3) shows a country with primarily agriculture-driven methane emissions.