GLASGOW: Leaders at the COP26 global climate conference pledged on Tuesday to stop deforestation by the end of the decade and slash emissions of the potent greenhouse gas methane to help slow climate change.
The second day of the two-week summit in Glasgow, Scotland also saw some overdue moves by wealthy nations to provide long-promised financial help for the developing countries worst hit by global warming.
More than 100 countries joined a US and EU-led effort to cut emissions of methane 30% by 2030 from 2020 levels, potentially a step in stemming rising temperatures and averting even greater damage from intensified heatwaves, droughts, storms and flooding.
Leaders of developing countries most at risk from the effects of climate change told delegates the stakes could not be higher.
“Let’s work for the survival of ours and all species. Let’s not choose extinction,” said Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Keith Rowley. The Global Methane Pledge, launched on Tuesday after being announced in September with just a few signatories, now covers countries representing nearly half of global methane emissions and 70% of global GDP, U.S. President Joe Biden said.
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Methane is more short-lived in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide but 80 times more potent in warming the planet. Cutting emissions of the gas, estimated to have accounted for 30% of global warming since pre-industrial times, is one of the most effective ways of slowing climate change.
Among the signatories is Brazil - one of the five biggest emitters of methane, 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.
The United States also unveiled its own domestic proposal to crack down on methane emissions with a focus on the oil and gas sector, where leaky infrastructure allows methane to escape into the atmosphere.
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 than has already been caused by climate change.
More than 100 national leaders also signed a promise to halt the destruction of the world’s forests which absorb roughly 30% of carbon dioxide emissions, according to the nonprofit World Resources Institute.
In 2020, the world lost 258,000 sq km (100,000 sq miles) of forest - an area larger than the United Kingdom, according to WRI’s Global Forest Watch. The conservation charity WWF estimates that 27 football fields of forest are lost every minute.
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The pledge to halt and reverse deforestation and land degradation by the end of the decade is underpinned by $19 billion in public and private funds to be invested in protecting and restoring forests.
“Let’s end this great global chainsaw massacre by making conservation do what we know it can do and deliver long-term sustainable jobs and growth as well,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.
The signatories include Brazil, which has carried out soaring deforestation under right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Together they account for 85% of the world’s forests.
Under the agreement, 12 countries pledged to provide $12 billion of public funding between 2021 and 2025 for developing countries to restore degraded land and tackle wildfires.
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