The effort to spot and stop methane emissions is receiving a $100 million increase in investments aimed at expanding satellite monitoring and helping countries adopt policies to curb emissions of the powerful greenhouse gas.
The Bloomberg Philanthropy Initiative, announced Thursday as world leaders gather in Brazil for a summit ahead of the COP30 climate conference, aims to maintain global attention on methane, a super-pollutant with the ability to trap at least 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide in the first 20 years after its release.
Businesses, environmental groups and charities have already stepped up surveillance, using satellites and handheld cameras to track methane plumes. More and more data is being released to help identify large-scale leaks, and there are some preliminary signs that polluters are taking action as a result.
“The challenge now is to scale up our efforts globally,” said Riley Duren, founder and CEO of Carbon Mapper, a nonprofit that analyzes satellite and aviation data to detect methane. “There is a gap between data and action on methane emissions,” he says.
The additional funding will enable the expansion of a global alert network that works directly with businesses, utilities and government regulators to combat large-scale methane emitters, Duren said. This includes tracking repairs to contain leaks.
Four years after dozens of countries first agreed to reduce global methane emissions caused by human activities by at least 30% from 2020 levels by the end of the decade, supporters are positioning the program as the next step in the world’s efforts to combat greenhouse gases. Emissions come from natural sources such as oil and gas production, agriculture, landfills, wetlands and wildfires.
“This initiative can usher in a new era of transparency and accountability,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in a statement. “We have the technology. What we need now is maximum ambition, acceleration and cooperation.”
The new initiative aims to strengthen cooperation with nine major methane emitters, including Indonesia, Mexico and Nigeria. Of the nine U.S. states, California, Texas, New Mexico and Pennsylvania will also be in focus.
Separately, another new initiative aims to significantly reduce methane emissions and water use from rice cultivation by developing low-emission varieties of one of the world’s largest staple foods.
Some varieties of rice produce 70 percent less methane than others, use half as much water as other varieties, and more research is needed to identify varieties that have less climate impact, said Marcelo Mena Carrasco, CEO of Global Methane Hub, which is investing $25 million into the U.S. Methane Innovation Accelerator Initiative. GMH is supported by the Bezos Earth Fund and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
“The aim would be to have a way to quickly reduce these emissions and provide a net benefit to farmers,” Mena Carrasco said.
(Bloomberg Philanthropies, the philanthropic arm of Michael Bloomberg, founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, which owns Bloomberg News, is a donor to the Global Methane Hub.)
Drewey and Clark write for Bloomberg.
