AFP UK

Attention turned Wednesday to how the world will pay for its plan to decarbonise and help vulnerable nations survive climate change, after a world leaders’ summit at COP26 that yielded a landmark methane slashing deal.

But a simmering diplomatic spat between the United States, China and Russia over the other’s climate ambition showed the fragile nature of talks aimed at averting disastrous global warming.

Negotiators are in Glasgow to try to keep the Paris Agreement temperature goal of 1.5C within reach.

In the six years since the deal, planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions have continued to rise and extreme weather linked to the heating climate have intensified. 

Finance is a crucial part of the picture, with vulnerable nations demanding that rich emitters make good on a decade-old promise to provide $100 billion annually to help.

British Chancellor Rishi Sunak said that COP26 would finally deliver the funds. 

“We know that you’ve been devastated by the double tragedies of Covid and climate change,” he told national representatives at the conference. 

“That’s why we’re going to meet the target of providing $100 billion of climate finance to developing nations.”

Sunak, COP26 President Alok Sharma and US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Wednesday all stressed the role that private investors will play in the climate funding plans.

The Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ), made up of more than 450 banks and asset managers, says it represents assets totalling $130 trillion.

“A pool of that capital is being carved out for the transition in emerging economies,” said Mark Carney, the former Bank of England governor behind the scheme.

“Right here, right now is where we draw the line,” he said at a roundtable event. 

“It is where private finance draws the line.” 

– Fossil fuel rules –

Yet campaigners raised concerns over how private finance is accounted in the international, UN-led climate process, pointing out that investors are still free to fund fossil fuel projects.

“More than $130 trillion and not a single rule to prevent even one dollar from being invested in the expansion of the fossil fuel sector,” said Lucie Pinson, executive director of the Reclaim Finance initiative. 

“It’s worth asking if the GFANZ and its members are actually ready to lead the charge against climate change, given that they are actually slowing down the green energy revolution by keeping afloat the polluting fossil fuel industry.”

Finance is fundamental for developing countries, who say they cannot afford the green transition taking place in richer nations.

Countries that have already suffered economic losses from supercharged storms or crop failures due to climate change are also desperate for separate “loss and damage” cash to help them recover.

Delegations will spend the next 12 days thrashing out details of the Paris Agreement rulebook, including rules governing carbon markets and a unified “stock take” on emissions cutting plans.

Although organisers say they want COP26 to keep the 1.5C heating limit within reach, the UN says the most up-to-date climate pledges put Earth on course to warm 2.7C.

A string of protests are planned during COP26 to push leaders to deliver.

– ‘Actions not words’ –

On Tuesday leaders committed to lower their emissions of methane — a potent greenhouse gas — by at least 30 percent this decade.

Experts said the pledge could have a significant impact on short-term global heating. 

But a two-day world leaders summit ended with barbed comments from the two largest emitters, the United States and China. 

US President Joe Biden criticised counterpart Xi Jinping for skipping the Glasgow summit, after China declined to sign the methane pledge.

“It just is a gigantic issue and they walked away. How do you do that and claim to be able to have any leadership?” Biden told journalists before flying out of Glasgow.

He said the same was true of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is also missing the talks.

China hit back on Wednesday, with a foreign ministry spokesman saying: “Actions speak louder than words”. 

“China’s actions in response to climate change are real,” he said.

A Kremlin spokesperson said “we disagree” with Biden’s assessment. 

“We are certainly not minimising the importance of the event in Glasgow, but Russia’s actions are consistent and thoughtful and serious,” he said.

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During the recent olive harvest, Palestinian farmer Dalal Sawalmeh raked her fingers through the silvery green leaves of her family’s trees but said there weren’t as many olives cascading to the ground.

Like many farmers across the occupied West Bank, Gaza Strip and Israel, she blames climate change for impacting the iconic gnarled trees that have shaped the Holy Land for centuries.

This year her trees produced less than half their usual yield and “not all the trees bore fruit,” the 38-year-old said near her West Bank village of Asira al-Shamaliya.

Palestinian and Israeli farmers both say the once reliable two-year olive cycle — where a bountiful harvest is typically followed by a weaker one the next year — has been disrupted. 

Last winter was exceptionally warm and dry, the spring brought an uncommon cold snap, and through the year rain fell in spurts or downpours. 

“The changes are very obvious,” said Hazem Yaseen, the mayor of Asira, where olives have been cultivated for at least 500 years.  

Israeli and Palestinian olive growers are now trying to adapt to a heating planet — each in their own way.  

– Search for ‘supertree’ –

High-tech Israel, at the government-funded Volcani Center for agricultural research, is seeking a genetic “supertree” to withstand climate change.

In an orchard outside Tel Aviv, plant sciences expert Giora Ben-Ari, 49, is testing 120 olive varieties from around the world for heat resistance.

While the Israeli Barnea shows good oil yield even after a hot summer, another, the Suri strain originally from Lebanon, produces quality but not quantity when the sun beats down, he said.

“We still didn’t identify one super cultivar that shows resistance in all parameters,” he said at the institute where he is also testing the benefits of added shade or irrigation during critical growth stages. 

“It’s not that the olive is so sensitive suddenly,” Ben-Ari said. “Other fruit trees are much more sensitive to temperature. 

“However, the olive in general is planted in marginal lands and therefore from the beginning it doesn’t have ideal conditions, and therefore every change also affects the yield.”

Already, Israeli olive growers have begun irrigating their trees.

Olive expert Reuven Birger said about a quarter of the 33,000 hectares of Israeli olive groves are supported with extra water, mostly using drip irrigation. 

– ‘Tree of the poor’ –

West Bank growers say climate change compounds the challenges they already face from Israel’s military occupation. 

To cope, some aim to do more with less. In Asira al-Shamaliya, 52 farmers have banded together to buy a $300,000 Italian olive press to cut down on oil lost to leaky old machines. 

One of the investors, Abdul Salam Sholi, 63, said he has also pruned his trees to help them thrive with less water.

“The olive tree is the tree of the poor,” he said. “You can have a tree with no expenses.”

Only about five percent of the 88,000 hectares of olive trees farmed by Palestinians are irrigated, said Fares Gabi, a retired Palestinian olive expert.

Farmers say they can’t afford the high prices caused by Israel’s military restricting Palestinian drilling for water in the West Bank.

Mayor Yaseen also said about a fifth of Asira’s land is in the so-called Area C, where Israel holds full control under the 1995 Oslo Accords. 

The Israeli military built a base on those lands and Yaseen said he was wounded last year during clashes with Jewish settlers. 

“The two are a threat,” Gabi said. “The settler influences the land and so does climate change.”

– ‘Trucking in water’ –

Some Palestinian farmers are experimenting with irrigation despite the high cost. 

Mohammed Amer Hammoudi, 67, said US assistance helped him start irrigating in 2010, and he kept up the practice even after the Trump administration cut aid to Palestinians. 

Water costs him as much as 10 shekels ($3.17) a cubic metre, at least six times what an Israeli farmer pays. Trucking the water to his land costs Hammoudi another 15 shekels per cubic metre, he said.

“The water is very expensive, but if you continue using this system, it gives you new tree branches,” he said. 

Hammoudi has managed to triple his return, and he now hopes to lower his water costs with a newly built rainwater catchment tank.

His experiment is catching on. Dalal Sawalmeh watered 30 of her 150 trees in July and August using metal barrels with small holes punched into their bases. 

Still, she said, even her improved harvest was so slim that she picked her olives with her family rather than hire workers.  

“I don’t want to pay for help,” she said. “We’re trying to cut back as much as we can.”

China hit back Wednesday against criticism by US President Joe Biden, who had accused Beijing of not showing leadership after President Xi Jinping skipped the make-or-break COP26 United Nations summit in Glasgow.

Xi — who leads the planet’s largest emitter of the greenhouse gases responsible for climate change — has not travelled outside of China since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic and has not joined world leaders for COP26.

Biden on Tuesday had launched blistering criticism of the Chinese and Russian leaders for not attending the summit.

“Actions speak louder than words,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin responded Wednesday.

“What we need in order to deal with climate change is concrete action rather than empty words,” he added. “China’s actions in response to climate change are real.”

He also made a jibe at Washington by adding that the United States pulling out of the Paris Agreement under Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump had harmed global climate governance and the implementation of the accord.

Biden has apologised for Trump’s decision.

COP26 has been billed as vital for the continued viability of the 2015 Paris Agreement under which nations promised to limit global temperature rises to “well below” 2C, and to work for a safer 1.5C cap.

At the summit on Tuesday, nearly one hundred nations joined a US and European Union initiative to cut emissions of methane — a potent greenhouse gas — by at least 30 percent this decade, with China among notable absentees.

Experts say the initiative could have a powerful short-term impact on global heating.

“It just is a gigantic issue and they walked away. How do you do that and claim to be able to have any leadership?” Biden told journalists before flying out of Glasgow.

“It’s been a big mistake, quite frankly, for China not showing up. The rest of the world looked at China and said: ‘What value are they providing?'”

As deforestation and climate change ravage India’s UNESCO heritage-listed Western Ghats mountain range, an all-female rainforest force is battling to protect one of the area’s last enclaves of biodiversity.

The region is home to at least 325 globally threatened flora, fauna, bird, amphibian, reptile and fish species but the International Union for the Conservation of Nature has ranked its outlook as a “significant concern”. 

But at Gurukula Botanical Sanctuary a group of 27 women act as guardians of the rare ferns, tree-hugging mosses and thousands of other plants that may otherwise be lost forever. 

“We are trying to salvage what is possible. It is like a refugee camp,” said Suprabha Seshan, one of the curators at the reserve.

It is also like a hospital.

“The intensive care unit is in the pots and then when you take them out that’s like the general ward where they get other forms of primary health care,” Seshan added.

She estimated that more than 90 percent of the forests once graced the area have disappeared, a situation she describes as an ecological “holocaust”. 

Gurukula was created as a haven for the native flora struggling for survival because of global warming and human encroachment, in the hope of slowly repopulating the region with indigenous plants. 

Gurukula, which means a ‘retreat with a guru’, was set up 50 years ago by German conservationist Wolfgang Theuerkauf.

Theuerkauf, who became an Indian citizen in 1978 and died seven years ago, started with seven acres (three hectares) of forest, today it is ten times that size.

– ‘This forest is our guru’ –

“Wolfgang said ‘this forest is our guru’,” Seshan explained.

Three generations of “rainforest gardeners” — women from local villages in the hot and humid Kerala state — have worked with botanists to build up the sanctuary. 

Dressed in big boots — to protect against cobras and the pitiless insects — and brightly coloured tunics, their hair tied under scarves, the women put in long days in the forests, the sanctuary’s greenhouses and its nursery.

They replant the suffering flora, sift compost and seeds and make a malodorous natural pesticide from cow urine. 

“We have between 30 and 40 percent of the Western Ghats flora under conservation here,” added Seshan. 

The work is becoming increasingly crucial.

The region won its UNESCO listing in 2012 in part because it is one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots, but in its 2020 World Heritage Outlook report, the IUCN warned of the threat of encroaching human activity and habitat loss. 

It said: “50 million people are estimated to live in the Western Ghats region, resulting in pressures that are orders of magnitude greater than many protected areas around the world.”

Seshan, who has worked at the sanctuary for 28 years, has seen things deteriorate first hand.

She recalled: “When I came here plastic was still not a part of our culture. I remember when Wolfgang found the first plastic bag in the river, he said: ‘civilization has arrived’.”

– Transplant success –

Fighting off bloodsucking leeches that thrive in the humidity, the rainforest gardeners tend to a multitude of endangered ferns, flowers and herbs that grow around the rocks and in the shade of tropical trees.

The small plants of the Western Ghats are vulnerable to rising temperatures, rainfall fluctuations and the loss of habitat, said Seshan.

“The more the climate changes, the more their reproductive life strategies have to change to adapt.”

Laly Joseph, another of the senior gardeners, scours the mountains for species that need to be moved to Gurukula for intensive care. 

She tries to find simple ways to reproduce the natural conditions for each species being cared for. It is also carefully listed in an inventory.

Joseph showed off an Impatiens jerdoniae with red and yellow flowers that had been struggling before being nurtured and transplanted on to a tree. Three years on it is thriving.

Joseph, who has worked at the sanctuary for 25 years, says saving a rare species and seeing it live again in a forest is incredibly satisfying. 

“They’re happy here, I am happy when they’re happy,” Joseph said of the plant. 

But she fears the increasingly unpredictable climate may destroy their work.  

The Western Ghats normally get up to 500 centimetres (200 inches) of rain a year, but the monsoon is increasingly erratic.

The plants are struggling to cope, Joseph said.  

“They wilt, they can’t pollinate, they don’t get seeds. That is the way you lose species,” she added. 

“I suffer when a tree has fallen, when the rainforest dies.”

Stopping by a giant oak tree in Europe’s largest surviving primeval forest, environmental journalist Adam Wajrak pauses in admiration.

“The trees here were born when the United States did not exist yet, when electricity had not been invented,” said the journalist, who moved to a village in the vast Bialowieza forest 25 years ago.

“It’s shocking that we protect historical monuments that are 400 years old but we cut down living organisms of the same age.”

The forest, which is divided by the Poland-Belarus border, is a treasure of biodiversity and a giant carbon sink. 

It has become a battlefield between environmentalists eager to protect it, and the state forestry agency keen to log it and many local residents who like to forage in it.

Forests have covered the area continuously for some 12,000 years, according to Bogdan Jaroszewicz, director of the University of Warsaw scientific unit in Bialowieza, a picturesque village of mostly wooden homes that is the main access point to the forest.

“Bialowieza is a giant open-air laboratory that allows us to study ecosystems evolving without human intervention.

“It’s a window on the past… from the point of view of the future, it’s a priceless natural genetic reservoir,” he said.

While other forests in Europe were cut down to make way for arable farming and then either grew back naturally or were replanted, Bialowieza has grown wild, virtually untouched.

The Bialowieza forest covers an area of 1,500 square kilometres and is dissected by the border between Belarus and Poland. 

Some 42 percent of it lies on the Polish side, and over a third of this is protected — including with a UNESCO heritage listing — but the rest is managed by the state forestry agency and subject to logging.

On the Belarusian side, the forest is entirely protected.

– Carbon reservoir –

Strolling deep in the forest, Wajrak stopped to pull some hairs caught on a tree trunk.

“A bison has passed here,” said Wajrak, who works for the Gazeta Wyborcza daily.

An emblematic animal for Poland, bison were hunted for centuries and disappeared from Bialowieza, its last habitat in Europe, before World War II. They were reintroduced using specimens reared in zoos.

There are currently estimated to be 715 bison in the forest — around half of Poland’s bison population — along with around 40 wolves and 15 lynxes.

In total, there are around 12,000 animal species in Bialowieza — mainly invertebrates — and around 1,000 plant species.

Some of the oaks have a circumference of six metres (20 feet) and are 40 metres high. Spruces can grow even higher — up to 50 metres, the equivalent of a 12-storey building.

In the forest, dead trees are as important as living ones.

“What makes Bialowieza different from commercial forests is the abundance of dead trees. Most of the animal species are linked to them. It’s a habitat for insects, mushrooms and lichens,” said Adam Bohdan from Wild Poland, a non-governmental organisation.

Wajrak said that Europeans have become used to manicured “pseudo-forests”.

“But the norm is Bialowieza — chaos, mess, trees lying on the ground rotting and giving life to other organisms,” he said.

“A primeval forest is more resistant to climate change and constitutes the best and most stable carbon reservoir in existence.”

– Breaking environmental laws –

In 2016-2019, an infestation of spruce bark beetles led to the greatest crisis in Bialowieza’s recent history.

The state forestry agency embarked on a major logging operation in Bialowieza with the justification of combating the spread of the wood-boring insects, angering environmentalists and the EU.

Campaigners said the government just wanted to sell more wood.

In order to stop the clearing, they chained themselves to trees and logging equipment.

Bohdan said he was taken down from a harvester by officers who slashed his harness with a knife, cutting his skin.

According to Bohdan, more than 700 hectares were logged, including many trees that were more than a century old.

The European Court of Justice ruled against Poland for breaking environmental laws and the government ceased logging in 2018.

– ‘Not logging’ –

In October, a limited amount of logging resumed in Bialowieza.

Bohdan said the felled trees included “large oaks that were nearly 90 years old” and the authorities used “the ridiculous pretext that it was to make space to plant other oaks”.

Environmentalists have called for a halt to the logging.

But Jaroslaw Krawczyk, a spokesman for the state forestry agency in the nearby city of Bialystok, said the activity was “not logging”.

“It’s management, conservation, protection and renewal,” he said.

In the rural commune of Hajnowka, many residents said they were opposed to expanding the protected area in the Bialowieza forest.

“If the park is expanded, we won’t be able to pick mushrooms or berries, or use the wood to heat our homes,” said Lucyna Smoktunowicz, mayor of the commune, home to around 3,000 people.

Local communes benefit from taxes paid by the forestry agency and from additional spending on infrastructure such as roads.

The possible expansion of the national park protected area triggers strong emotions.

“If we say that we’re in favour of expanding the park, we can have problems at work, at home, conflicts with family and friends. It’s very tough,” said Joanna Lapinska, from the association Locals For The Forest. 

– ‘Tough, resistant’ –

The forest has other problems too.

It is now divided by a new five-metre-high razor wire fence that Poland has to put up to stop an influx of migrants from Belarus.

“When an animal tries to cross it, it gets injured, it starts to panic, it gets stuck, its muscles are torn, its tendons are torn and it bleeds to death in shock,” said Rafal Kowalczyk, head of the Polish Academy of Sciences unit in Bialowieza.

He said entire animal populations could be put in danger.

Despite all the threats to its existence, its supporters are hopeful of the forest’s ability to survive.

On his walk, Wajrak looked up at his favourite hornbeam trees.

“When they get old, wrinkles appear, cracks, they twist. They’re like human beings — tough, resistant.”

The pledge taken by about 100 countries at the COP26 climate talks on Tuesday to slash emissions from methane by 30 percent before 2030 could help cap global warming at liveable levels, but key emitters are missing, experts say.

“Methane is one of the gases that we can reduce most quickly,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

This would “immediately slow down climate change,” she added, noting that this potent greenhouse gas — which absorbs 80 times more solar radiation over short periods than CO2 — accounts for about 30 percent of warming since the industrial revolution.

In September the United States and the European Union spearheaded the agreement, which has since been joined by Canada, Brazil, South Korea, Japan, Colombia and Argentina, among others. 

All told, the 100-odd nations that signed on to the Global Methane Pledge account for about 40 percent of global emissions of the odourless, invisible gas.   

“This is a historic moment, this is huge,” said Fatih Birol, head of the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA), estimating that reaching the goal would cancel out the equivalent of greenhouse gas emissions from all the ships, planes and other vehicles in the world.  

“Today’s pledge… would reduce the temperature rise by about one-third of a degree Celsius by 2045,” said Joanna Haigh, emeritus professor of atmospheric physics at Imperial College London.

Methane (CH4) is the gas most responsible for global warming after CO2. While more short-lived in the atmosphere, it is 29 times more potent than CO2 over a 100 years, and 82 times more potent over a 20-year period. 

Human-induced sources are roughly divided between leaks from natural gas production, coal mining and landfills on one side, and rice paddies along with livestock and manure handling, on the other.

CH4 levels are at their highest in at least 800,000 years. 

Reducing the amount of methane seeping into the air would quickly translate into a slowdown of rising temperatures, and help close the so-called emissions gap between the Paris Agreement target of a 1.5C cap on warming, and the 2.7C we are heading for even if all nations honour their carbon-cutting promises.     

– A start but not good enough –

The reductions targeted can be made with existing technology, according to the UN Environment Programme. 

The oil and gas industry — just behind agriculture as the major source of methane — has the biggest potential for rapid reductions, notably through the detection and repair of gas leaks during production and transport.

“A 75 percent reduction in methane from the oil and gas sector is possible, and 50 percent of this could be done at no net cost,” said UNEP, which recently launched, along with the Climate and Clean Air Coalition, a Global Methane Assessment platform.   

Methane emissions are also a significant byproduct of bovine digestion, so a shift in human diets away from beef could also make a significant dent. Renewable energy replacing fossil fuels likewise reduces potential sources of the gas.

Taken together, these measures could shave an additional 15 percent off today’s emissions by 2030.   

The sum total of a 45 percent decline of methane escaping into the atmosphere could keep the 1.5C target alive. 

Some climate campaigners say that’s what the pledge should have aimed for.

“World leaders are right to target methane emissions but today’s announcement falls short of the 45 percent reduction that the UN says is necessary to keep global warming below 1.5C,” said Murray Worthy, gas campaign leader at Global Witness.

“Thirty percent cuts are a start but it’s not enough for 1.5C,” agreed Dave Jones, global lead for NGO Ember. 

“Coal mine methane super-emitters need to take the first step and admit the scale of the problem. And that they can be part of the solution.” 

China, India, Australia and Russia did not join the pledge.

“For emissions from oil and gas, one would have hoped to see Russia join this initiative too,” said Jim Watson, professor of energy policy at the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources.

“These emissions are relatively cheap to plug, so really should be addressed as a matter of urgency.”

Countries on Tuesday issued a landmark pledge to slash their methane emissions this decade, with US President Joe Biden chiding China’s leader for skipping the make-or-break COP26 climate summit. 

Nearly one hundred nations joined a United States and European Union initiative to cut emissions of methane — a potent greenhouse gas — by at least 30 percent this decade, with China among notable absentees.

The initiative, which experts say could have a powerful short-term impact on global heating, followed an announcement earlier on Tuesday at the summit in Glasgow in which more than 100 nations agreed to end deforestation by 2030.

“One of the most important things we can do between now and 2030, to keep 1.5C in reach, is reduce our methane emissions as soon as possible,” said Biden, referring to the central goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement. 

He called the pledge, covering half of global methane emissions, a “game-changing commitment”.

However, he criticised the decision of China’s President Xi Jinping — whose economy is the largest overall emitter — not to attend the summit kicking off the 13-day climate negotiations.

“It’s been a big mistake, quite frankly, for China not showing up. The rest of the world looked at China and said, “what value are they providing?’,” Biden told reporters.

“It’s just is a gigantic issue and they walked away. How do you do that and claim to be able to have any leadership?” Biden said. 

The same was true for Russian President Vladimir Putin, he added.

Heads of state and government are gathered in Glasgow for the two-day summit that host Britain is hoping will spur ambitious climate action during the negotiations that follow. 

Organisers say the outcome in Glasgow will be crucial for the continued viability of the Paris Agreement temperature goals.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday he was “cautiously optimistic” about progress made in Glasgow so far.

– Stronger than CO2 –

Decades of climate pledges have been rooted in reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Yet methane (CH4) is over 80 times more potent than CO2, and its sources, such as open-pit coal mines, gas leaks and livestock, have received relatively little attention until now.

The International Energy Agency estimates that the fossil fuel industry emitted 120 million tonnes of methane in 2020, and much of it can be easily avoided.

A UN report from earlier this year showed that “available targeted methane measures” could see CH4 levels reduced by 45 percent by 2030. 

This would shave 0.3C off projected warming, save a quarter of a million air pollution deaths and increase global crop yields by 26 million tonnes, the UN’s Environment Programme (UNEP) has calculated.

UNEP also says greenhouse gas emissions in general must fall 45 percent by 2030 to keep 1.5C in reach.

“Methane is a greenhouse gas strongly associated with the fossil fuel industry… evaporating from coal mines, from oil and gas extraction and from pipelines,” said Kat Kramer, Christian Aid’s climate policy lead. 

“Methane is but another reason why the fossil fuel industry has to end.” 

However, major emitters China, India, Russia and Australia did not sign the pledge. 

WWF climate expert Vanessa Perez-Cirera said she would like to see “all signatories to the Paris Agreement sign up”.

– Access issues –

Earlier on Tuesday, countries made a multibillion-dollar pledge to end deforestation by 2030. 

But the promise was met with scepticism from environmental groups, and although details were sparse, it appeared to largely resemble an earlier pledge.   

The British government said that the plan to drum up around $20 billion in public and private funding had been endorsed by more than 100 leaders representing over 85 percent of Earth’s forests, including the Amazon rainforest.

The summit pact to “halt and reverse deforestation and land degradation by 2030” encompasses promises to secure the rights of indigenous peoples, and recognise “their role as forest guardians”.

While Johnson described the pledge as “unprecedented”, a UN climate gathering in New York in 2014 issued a similar declaration to end deforestation by 2030.

An assessment earlier this year found that virtually no government was on course to fulfil its responsibilities.

“Signing the declaration is the easy part,” UN chief Antonio Guterres said on Twitter. 

“It is essential that it is implemented now for people and planet.”

Meanwhile, chaotic scenes continued on Tuesday around the COP26 venue, with attendees queueing around the block awaiting security checks. 

By early afternoon, the UN organisers sent a text alert asking people to stay away from the venue “in order to ensure compliance with Covid-19 measures”. 

Accessibility issues in the locked-down city centre were highlighted as Israel’s energy minister, who uses a wheelchair, was unable to enter the venue on Monday.

The laundry list for COP26 remains daunting, with pressure on leaders to commit to faster decarbonisation and provide billions to nations already dealing with the fallout of climate change.  

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US President Joe Biden’s administration announced new regulations during the global climate summit on Tuesday aimed at “sharply” reducing methane emissions by the oil and natural gas industry.

The announcement came as Biden attended the COP26 in Glasgow, where dozens of countries joined an American and European Union pledge to cut emissions of methane — the most potent greenhouse gas — by 30 percent this decade.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said it was proposing “comprehensive new protections to sharply reduce pollution from the oil and natural gas industry.”

“The proposed rule would reduce 41 million tons of methane emissions from 2023 to 2035, the equivalent of 920 million metric tons of carbon dioxide,” the EPA said in a statement.

“That’s more than the amount of carbon dioxide emitted from all US passenger cars and commercial aircraft in 2019,” it added.

The emission reduction requirements would apply not only to existing oil and gas sources but to those built in the future.

It requires states to “develop plans to limit methane emissions from hundreds of thousands of existing sources nationwide.”

The EPA said it expects to issue a final rule before the end of the year.

“As global leaders convene at this pivotal moment in Glasgow for COP26, it is now abundantly clear that America is back and leading by example in confronting the climate crisis with bold ambition,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said.

The White House also announced that the Department of Transportation will upgrade and expand pipeline rules that will require operators to cut methane leaks.

The administration will also launch an “aggressive” program to plug hundreds of thousands of “orphan” oil and gas wells, including many that are still spewing out methane.

The oil and gas industry is responsible for around 30 percent of total methane emissions in the United States.

Biden has set a reduction target of 50 to 52 percent from 2005 levels in greenhouse gas pollution by 2030.

The Biden administration announcement was welcomed by environmental groups.

“Swiftly reducing methane emissions will result in significant and much-needed near-term climate progress,” said Julie McNamara, deputy policy director in the Climate and Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

“Today’s actions by EPA Administrator Regan take important strides in achieving that necessary progress,” McNamara said.

Thanu Yakupitiyage of international environmental organization 350.org said CO2 emissions must be addressed as well.

“Methane emissions must be curbed and curbed quick,” Yakupitiyage said. “But this effort should not deviate from efforts to curb CO2 emissions.”

Dozens of countries on Tuesday joined a United States and European Union pledge to cut emissions of methane — a potent greenhouse gas — by at least 30 percent this decade, in a major commitment for climate action.

The initiative, which experts say could have a powerful short-term impact on global heating, followed an announcement earlier Tuesday  at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow in which more than 100 nations agreed to end deforestation by 2030.

“One of the most important things we can do between now and 2030, to keep 1.5C in reach, is reduce our methane emissions as soon as possible,” said US President Joe Biden, referring to the central goal of the 2015 Paris agreement. 

He called the pledge, which has so far been signed by nearly 100 nations, a “game-changing commitment” that covered countries responsible for around half of global methane emissions.

European Commission head Ursula Von der Leyen said that the methane cut would “immediately slow down climate change”.

“We cannot wait until 2050. We have to cut emissions fast and methane is one of the gases we can cut the fastest,” she said.

Heads of state and government are gathered in Glasgow for a two-day high-level summit that host Britain is hoping will kick start ambitious climate action during the two-week COP26. 

Organisers say the outcome in Glasgow will be crucial for the continued viability of the 2015 Paris Agreement temperature goals.

While the summit’s first day passed with much rhetoric but only lukewarm climate pledges, Tuesday’s twin announcements were broadly welcomed by campaigners.

The laundry list for COP26 remains daunting, however, with pressure on leaders to commit to faster decarbonisation and provide billions to nations already dealing with the fallout of climate change.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told reporters he was “cautiously optimistic” about the progress made so far. 

But he warned that “there is still a very long way to go” before any meaningful deal. 

– Stronger than CO2 –

Decades of climate pledges have been rooted in reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Yet methane (CH4) is more than 80 times more potent than CO2, and its sources, such as open pit coal mines, gas leaks and livestock, have received relatively little attention until now.

The International Energy Agency estimates that the fossil fuel industry emitted 120 tonnes of methane in 2020, and much of it can be easily avoided.

A UN report from earlier this year showed that “available targeted methane measures” could see CH4 levels reduced by 45 percent by 2030. 

This would shave 0.3C off projected warming, save a quarter of a million air pollution deaths and increase global crop yields by 26 million tonnes, the UN’s Environment Programme (UNEP) said.

UNEP also says all emissions must fall 45 percent by 2030 to keep 1.5C in reach.

“Methane is a greenhouse gas strongly associated with the fossil fuel industry… evaporating from coal mines, from oil and gas extraction and from pipelines,” said Kat Kramer, Christian Aid’s climate policy lead. 

“Methane is but another reason why the fossil fuel industry has to end.” 

However, major emitters China, India, Russia and Australia did not sign the pledge. 

WWF climate expert Vanessa Perez-Cirera WWF said she would like to see “all signatories to the Paris Agreement sign up”.

– Access issues –

Earlier Tuesday, countries made a multibillion-dollar pledge to end deforestation by 2030. 

But the promise was met with scepticism from environmental groups, and although details were sparse, it appeared to largely resemble a similar pledge made by more than 200 countries and organisations in 2014. 

The British government said that the plan to drum up around $20 billion in public and private funding had been endorsed by more than 100 leaders representing over 85 percent of Earth’s forests, including the Amazon rainforest.

The summit pact to “halt and reverse deforestation and land degradation by 2030” encompasses promises to secure the rights of indigenous peoples, and recognise “their role as forest guardians”.

While Johnson described the pledge as “unprecedented”, a UN climate gathering in New York in 2014 issued a similar declaration to end deforestation by 2030.

An assessment earlier this year found that seven years on from the pact, virtually no government was on course to fulfil their responsibilities.

“Signing the declaration is the easy part,” UN chief Antonio Guterres said on Twitter. 

“It is essential that it is implemented now for people and planet.”

Meanwhile, chaotic scenes continued on Tuesday around the COP26 venue, with attendees queueing around the block awaiting security checks. 

By early afternoon, the UN organisers sent a text alert asking people to stay away from the venue “in order to ensure compliance with Covid-19 measures”. 

Accessibility issues in the locked down city centre were highlighted as Israel’s energy minister, who uses a wheelchair, was unable to enter the venue on Monday.

Dozens of countries on Tuesday joined a United States and European Union pledge to cut emissions of methane — the most potent greenhouse gas — by at least 30 percent this decade, in the most significant climate commitment so far at COP26.

The initiative, which experts say could have a powerful short-term impact on global heating, followed an announcement earlier Tuesday in which more than 100 nations agreed to end deforestation by 2030.

“One of the most important things we can do between now and 2030, to keep 1.5C in reach, is reduce our methane emissions as soon as possible,” said US President Joe Biden, referring to the central goal of the 2015 Paris agreement. 

He called the pledge, which has so far been signed by nearly 100 nations, a “game-changing commitment” that covered countries responsible for around half of global methane emissions.

European Commission head Ursula Von der Leyen said that the methane cut would “immediately slow down climate change”.

“We cannot wait until 2050. We have to cut emissions fast and methane is one of the gases we can cut the fastest,” she said.

Heads of state and government are gathered in Glasgow for a two-day high-level summit that host Britain is hoping will kick start ambitious climate action during the two-week COP26. 

Organisers say the ensuing shuttle diplomacy and painstaking negotiation will be crucial for the continued viability of the 2015 Paris Agreement, and its goal to limit temperature rises to between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius.

While the summit’s first day passed with much rhetoric but only lukewarm climate pledges, Tuesday’s twin announcements were broadly welcomed by campaigners.

– Stronger than CO2 –

Decades of climate pledges have been rooted in reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Yet methane (CH4) is more than 80 times more potent than CO2, and its sources, such as open pit coal mines and livestock, have received relatively little attention until now.

The International Energy Agency estimates that the fossil fuel industry emitted 120 tonnes of methane in 2020, and much of it can be easily avoided.

A UN report from earlier this year showed that “available targeted methane measures” could see CH4 levels reduced by 45 percent by 2030. 

This would shave 0.3C off projected warming, save a quarter of a million air pollution deaths and increase global crop yields by 26 million tonnes, the UN’s Environment Programme said.

Kat Kramer, Christian Aid’s climate policy lead, said Tuesday’s had the potential to significantly lower temperature rises.

“Methane is a greenhouse gas strongly associated with the fossil fuel industry… evaporating from coal mines, from oil and gas extraction and from pipelines,” she said. 

“Methane is but another reason why the fossil fuel industry has to end.” 

However, major emitters China, India, Russia and Australia did not sign the pledge. 

– Access issues –

Earlier Tuesday, countries made a multibillion-dollar pledge to end deforestation by 2030. 

But the promise was met with scepticism from environmental groups, and although details were sparse, it appeared to largely resemble a similar pledge made by more than 200 countries and organisations in 2014. 

The British government said that the plan to drum up around $20 billion in public and private funding had been endorsed by more than 100 leaders representing over 85 percent of Earth’s forests, including the Amazon rainforest.

The summit pact to “halt and reverse deforestation and land degradation by 2030” encompasses promises to secure the rights of indigenous peoples, and recognise “their role as forest guardians”.

While British Prime Minister Boris Johnson described the pledge as “unprecedented”, a UN climate gathering in New York in 2014 issued a similar declaration to end deforestation by 2030.

An assessment earlier this year found that seven years on from the pact, virtually no government was on course to fulfil their responsibilities.

Trees continue to be cut down on an industrial scale, not least in the Amazon under the far-right government of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.

Humans have already cut down half of Earth’s forests, a practice doubly harmful for the climate when CO2-sucking trees are replaced with livestock or monoculture crops.

The laundry list for COP26 remains daunting, with pressure on leaders to commit to faster decarbonisation and provide billions to nations already dealing with the fallout of climate change.

Meanwhile, chaotic scenes continued on Tuesday around the COP26 venue, with attendees queueing around the block awaiting security checks. 

By early afternoon, the UN organisers sent a text alert asking people to stay away from the venue “in order to ensure compliance with Covid-19 measures”. 

Accessibility issues in the locked down city centre were highlighted as Israel’s energy minister, who uses a wheelchair, was unable to enter the venue on Monday.