Highlights from 2023 Global Methane Pledge Ministerial

At today’s COP28 Global Methane Pledge Ministerial, Ministers welcomed transformational national actions and catalytic grant funding to deliver on the goal to cut methane at least 30 percent by 2030.

This year, Global Methane Pledge (GMP) partners announced:

1. Over $1 billion in new grant funding for methane action mobilized since COP27, more than triple current levels, which will mobilize billions in investment to reduce methane.
2. Game-changing new national commitments and legislation from top oil and gas methane emitters alongside decisive action on waste and food and agriculture.
3. Transformational data tools including the full launch of the Methane Alert and Response System and a new Data for Methane Action Campaign.
4. New members and expanded leadership. Canada, Federated States of Micronesia, Germany, Japan, and Nigeria joined the United States and European Union as Global Methane Pledge Champions. Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Romania, and Angola joined the Pledge, bringing total participation to 155 governments.

Achieving the GMP goal of cutting anthropogenic methane emissions at least 30% by 2030 from 2020 levels is the fastest way to reduce near-term warming and is essential to keep a 1.5°C temperature limit within reach. Methane contributes 30% of current warming and is a precursor of tropospheric ozone, a powerful greenhouse gas and air pollutant that causes hundreds of thousands of deaths and hundreds of millions of tons of crop losses each year. Rapidly reducing methane emissions advances global climate, health, food security, and energy security objectives simultaneously.

Methane Finance Sprint Delivers Over $1 Billion in Catalytic New Grant Funding

President Biden launched the Methane Finance Sprint in April 2023 at the Major Economies Forum, with the aim of raising at least $200 million in new high-impact grant funding by COP28. Today, governments, the European Commission, philanthropies, and the private sector significantly exceeded that target, announcing over $1 billion in new grant funding committed since COP27, which more than triples previous annual methane grant funding and will leverage billions more in urgently needed project investment. These funds will support cutting methane emissions across all sectors with a focus in low- and middle-income countries. The Sprint includes $255 million for the re-launch of the World Bank Global Flaring and Methane Reduction Partnership, $200 million for the launch of the Enteric Fermentation Accelerator, and additional support for the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC), the International Methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO), and other programs, elaborated below.

According to a recently released report from the Climate Policy Initiative, average annual methane abatement finance has moved in the right direction since the launch of the Global Methane Pledge, with an increase of 18% in 2021/2022 compared to 2019/2020. The new funding from the Methane Finance Sprint exponentially accelerates this progress providing crucial technical assistance to further accelerate national methane planning and policy action and project pipeline development work that will catalyze billions in methane reduction investment.

Governments and the European Commission contributed over $408 million in funding toward the Sprint, including $3.5 million from Canada, $190 million (€175 million) from the European Commission, $22.7 million from France, $21.8 million from Germany (intended), $3 million from Ireland, $7.7 million from Japan, $100 million from the United Arab Emirates, $2.5 million from the United Kingdom, and $57 million from the United States. Philanthropies and the private sector contributed over $637 million to the total.

In addition to the over $1 billion in new grant funding, international financial institutions approved over $3.5 billion in new investments for methane-reducing projects since COP27. Approvals include $375 million from the Green Climate Fund and partners, over $1.9 billion (€1.78 billion) from the European Investment Bank, over $218 million (€200 million) from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and $372.5 million from the Inter-American Development Bank. The World Bank approved at least $700 million in investments, including a $255 million for rice project in China, $300 million for landfill methane reduction in Cote d’Ivoire, and $145 million for wastewater methane reduction in Malawi.

World’s Top Oil and Gas Emitters Advance New National Actions to Cut Energy Sector Emissions—The Fastest Methane Reduction Strategy

The fossil energy sector has the largest, fastest, and cheapest methane reduction potential across sectors, and must deliver over half of all methane reductions by 2030 in all credible pathways to achieve the Global Methane Pledge. As the International Energy Agency (IEA) and CCAC made clear in a recent report, even deep cuts in fossil energy production and use will not limit warming to 1.5°C without immediate additional action to cut methane emissions from fossil fuels. At the COP28 Ministerial, partners announced new steps to deliver methane reductions in the energy sector in support of the GMP Energy Pathway, including:

• The world’s largest oil and gas methane emitters announced new policies, regulations, and national commitments to cut fossil methane, including:
  • The United States announced final standards to sharply reduce methane emissions from oil and gas operations, which will reduce over 1.5 Gt of CO2 equivalent and achieve a nearly 80% reduction below future methane emissions expected without the rule.
  • The European Union adopted its first-ever methane regulations, setting ambitious monitoring and abatement criteria for domestically produced and imported fossil oil, gas, and coal, including establishing a methane import standard by 2030.
  • Canada unveiled draft regulations to achieve an ambitious reduction of methane emissions in the upstream oil and gas sector by at least 75 percent below 2012 levels by 2030.
  • Brazil announced that its National Council of Energy Policy will establish guidelines on methane reduction in the oil and gas sector by the end of 2024, and the National Agency for Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP) aims to finalize regulations by the end of 2025 based on these guidelines.
  • Egypt announced its intention to develop domestic methane regulations in its oil and gas sector by the end of 2024, as part of developing the sector’s detailed methane emission reduction roadmap.
  • Nigeria showcased major steps taken this year under the Nigeria Gas Flare Commercialization Program (NGFCP), including advancing projects it estimates will capture over half of all gas flaring volumes in Nigeria. Nigeria is committed to accelerate implementation of these projects and to ensure robust enforcement of its oil and gas methane guidelines launched at COP27.
  • Kazakhstan joined the Global Methane Pledge and announced cooperation with the United States to develop national standards to eliminate non-emergency venting of methane and require leak detection and repair in the oil and gas sector as soon as possible before 2030.
  • Turkmenistan and Angola joined the Global Methane Pledge.
• The Oil and Gas Methane Partnership 2.0 announced new members. The Partnership now represents over 120 companies with assets in more than 60 countries on five continents and covers over 35% of the world’s oil and gas production and over 70% of LNG flows.
• The World Bank launched its Global Flaring and Methane Reduction Partnership (GFMR) with $255 million in new grant funding to catalyze oil and gas methane and flaring reduction in developing countries. The GFMR is supported by financial contributions from the United Arab Emirates, United States, Norway, BP, ENI, Equinor, Occidental, Shell, and TotalEnergies. Access to project development and financing support through GFMR will be contingent on commitments to achieve near-zero methane emissions by 2030 by reducing methane intensity to below 0.2%, achieve zero routine flaring by 2030, measure and report methane emissions through the Oil and Gas Methane Partnership 2.0 framework, and endorse the Global Methane Pledge.
• The United States, the European Commission, and twelve other natural gas importing and exporting countries formed an international working group to advance comparable and reliable information about methane and CO2 emissions across the natural gas supply chain to drive global emissions reductions.
• The Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI) is expanding its Satellite Monitoring Campaign to provide actionable data to reduce emissions from large-magnitude methane plumes and flares, supported by in-kind contributions from OGCI companies. ExxonMobil also intends to provide up to $25 million in in-kind assistance to address capability shortcomings to reduce methane emissions.

GMP Partners Announce the Largest Ever Research and Development Effort on Livestock Methane, Anchoring Progress in the Food and Agriculture Pathway

As part of the GMP Food and Agriculture Pathway, partners are investing in innovation, measurement and verification, and support for farmers. These measures focus on reducing emissions from the sector while advancing food security and farmer livelihoods by focusing on sustainable productivity growth. Highlights include:

• The Global Methane Hub formally launched the Enteric Fermentation R&D Accelerator with $200 million in funding, making it the largest ever globally coordinated research effort into livestock methane reduction. The Accelerator is coordinated by Global Methane Hub and supported by an alliance of philanthropic organizations, governments, and companies.
• The World Bank launched the Global Methane Reduction Platform for Development (CH4D) to support low-and mid-income countries to realize the ‘methane triple-wins’ of abating emissions, enhancing resilience, and empowering livelihoods. Through partnerships, including with the CCAC Methane Roadmap Action Programme (M-RAP), CH4D will mobilize expertise, affordable technologies, and catalytic finance for methane abatement in the agriculture and waste sectors.
• The International Fund for Agriculture Development’s Reducing Agricultural Methane Program (RAMP) announced that it will, with funding from the U.S. State Department and Global Methane Hub, support 15 governments to incorporate agricultural methane into their nationally determined contributions and 10 governments to build investment pipelines in low-methane agricultural development.
• The Dairy Methane Action Alliance is a global initiative to accelerate food industry action to drive down dairy methane emissions, launching on December 5 at COP28 with more than three major food companies, representing billions of dollars in global annual dairy sales.

GMP Partners Launch New Lowering Organic Waste Methane Initiative, Among Other Steps to Advance the Waste Pathway

Partners highlighted several new initiatives in support of the GMP Waste Pathway which aims to jumpstart a dramatic scale-up of global action on reducing waste methane. Highlights include:

• The Launch of the Lowering Organic Waste Methane (LOW-Methane) initiative. The ambition of LOW-Methane is to deliver at least 1 million metric tons of annual waste sector methane reductions well before 2030 with 40 subnational jurisdictions and their national government counterparts, including by working to unlock over $10 billion in public and private investment. The consortium effort will be supported by a coordination group housed within the UNEP-convened CCAC.
• The Inter-American Development Bank launched a new “Too Good to Waste” initiative, which aims to contribute at least a 30% reduction in methane emissions in solid waste operations in Latin America and the Caribbean financed by the Bank, including three recently approved projects totaling $372.5 million.
• The United States announced new steps on waste methane. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is planning a rulemaking to review and, if appropriate, revise its Clean Air Act emission standards for new and existing municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills, considering new monitoring technology, incentivization of organics waste diversion, and emissions controls at landfills not covered by current regulations. In 2024, EPA will release updates on emissions estimates for MSW landfills. In addition, the United States released for public comment a draft national strategy for Reducing Food Loss and Waste and Recycling Organics in line with its 2030 50% food loss and waste reduction goal.
• The leaders of Canada, the United States, and Mexico committed to reducing methane emissions from the waste sector by at least 15% by 2030 at the 2023 North American Leaders Summit.
• The CCAC’s new Technology and Economic Assessment Panel (CCAC-TEAP) released its first report. The CCAC-TEAP, co-chaired by Ireland and Senegal, released a brief on Driving Innovation and Technology in the Waste Sector.

CCAC Announces Major Progress in the Development of Methane Action Plans, Which Now Cover 55% of Global Emissions

86 governments and the European Union have engaged on methane action planning to date. 75 are participating in the CCAC Methane Roadmap Action Programme (M-RAP), which helps GMP countries to develop national methane plans using a transparent and harmonized methodology. 57 governments and the European Union—covering over 55% of global anthropogenic methane emissions—have completed or are in the process of completing their plan, 31 of them with support from the CCAC. The Republic of Korea and Iceland have just issued their completed plans. All ODA-eligible GMP countries can receive CCAC funding support to develop their national methane roadmap or action plan.

As of October 2023, it is estimated that over 90% of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) cover methane emissions within the scope of their target. At the Ministerial, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry issued a challenge to governments to include all greenhouse gases from all sectors in their revised 2035 NDC target.

At the subnational level, California launched a new Subnational Methane Action Coalition with 15 jurisdictions around the world to empower subnational governments to make concrete progress towards their climate goals by enabling methane emissions reductions in the energy, agricultural and waste sectors.

The Methane Alert and Response System and a New Methane Data Campaign Drive Progress in Converting Data to Action

Since COP27, partners have continued to make significant progress leveraging transformational data tools to scale up methane action, including:

• Full launch of the Methane Alert and Response System (MARS). At COP28, IMEO is announcing the expansion of its Methane Alert and Response System (MARS) following a successful pilot phase. MARS is the first global system that connects satellite-detected methane emissions with a trackable notification process. During its pilot phase, from January to December 2023, MARS detected over 1,000 energy sector methane plumes globally, linked 400 of the plumes to energy sector facilities, and notified 127 events to six national governments and relevant OGMP 2.0 member companies.
• Launch of the Data to Methane Action Campaign. The Global Methane Hub, in collaboration with IMEO and its partners, launched a Campaign to comprehensively deliver increased funding to enable governments, businesses, and other actors to radically reduce methane emissions, including harmful leaks, and drive effective policy change through never-before-leveraged data. At COP28, the Global Methane Hub announced $10 million in seed funding toward the Campaign and a funding target of $300 million by COP29.
• Further Progress in Collecting and Disseminating Actionable Methane Data, including the release of a beta version of IMEO’s Methane Data Platform, which integrates data from dozens of public Earth observing satellites, the launch of complementary efforts like new United States Greenhouse Gas Center, and MethaneSAT and Carbon Mapper announcing plans for satellite launches in 2024.
• Continued Progress on Methane Data Science, including IMEO’s support for 34 new science studies to fill existing knowledge gaps about the location and magnitude of emissions, including the first scientific measurement campaigns in Sub-Saharan Africa (Angola and Gabon) and the Middle East (Oman).

For more details on the above, see the Global Methane Pledge website. For further information, please contact [email protected].