COP26 summit: Deal struck on methane cuts as Boris Johnson talks success

World leaders have agreed to curb emissions of the planet’s second-most polluting greenhouse gas as Boris Johnson expressed optimism for success at the Glasgow conference.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow on Tuesday. Picture: Getty Images

World leaders have agreed to curb emissions of the planet’s second-most polluting greenhouse gas as Boris Johnson expressed optimism for success at the Glasgow climate change conference.

The British Prime Minister said that two days of talks had given a “sense” of how the world could achieve the cuts needed in greenhouse gases. He was speaking after 103 countries signed a deal to reduce methane emissions by 30 per cent by the end of the decade. If fully implemented, the pledge could limit global warming by about 0.2C by 2050.

Britain, the US, the EU, Indonesia, Pakistan, Argentina, ­Mexico, Nigeria, Iraq, Vietnam and Canada all signed. However, China, India and Russia, three of the top five methane emitters, have not and neither has ­Australia.

In a further setback to the meeting’s aim of limiting the rise in global temperatures to close to 1.5C, China’s chief climate negotiator questioned the objective.

“If we only focus on 1.5, we are destroying consensus and many countries would demand a reopening of the [Paris] negotiations,” Xie Zhenhua said. He also suggested China was unlikely to go further than its existing pledge to peak its carbon emissions by 2030. “We have already been making our biggest possible ­effort,” he said.

The international philanthropist and climate campaigner Bill Gates also warned that getting an agreement that limited warming to 1.5C could prove unattainable. “1.5C will be very difficult. I doubt that we’ll be able to achieve that,” he said.

However, Mr Johnson struck a more optimistic tone, suggesting that China could be persuaded to bring forward the date that its emissions would peak.

Mr Johnson added that he had also not given up hope that developed countries would meet the target of reaching $US100bn worth of climate finance to help poorer countries decarbonise. He said the “eyes of the world” were on the negotiators, who will spend the next 10 days trying to hammer out a comprehensive agreement.

US President Joe Biden said the leaders in Glasgow had demonstrated a “great example of the kind of ambition you need” to confront global warming. “I can’t think of any two days where more looked at China and said ‘What value are they providing?’”

The global methane pledge was the second substantial deal agreed at COP26 after the declaration to end deforestation by 2030, and covers half of the top 30 major methane emitters.

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that can warm the ­atmosphere 80 times as fast as carbon dioxide but which breaks down much more quickly. About 0.5C of the 1.1C rise in the global average temperature since the ­industrial revolution has been caused by methane emissions.

If the pledge is fully implemented it could limit global warming by about 0.2C by 2050, helping to achieve the main Paris Agreement goal of limiting warming to below 2C. Methane also contributes to the formation of ground-level ozone, a dangerous air pollutant that also suppresses crop growth.

The Times