A focus on healthier diets that contain less consumption of meat and dairy is needed to tackle methane emissions, according to a report released this week.
The report, entitled Methane Matters: a comprehensive approach to methane mitigation, outlined cost-effective actions that governments can take to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
It was compiled by the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA), the Changing Markets Foundation (CMF), and the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA).
The report highlighted the importance of focusing on non CO2 emissions such as methane, and outlines the steps that governments can take to cut emissions from the three main sources linked to human activity: agriculture (40%); energy (35%); and waste (20%).
According to the report, governments have been slow to grasp the potential within the food and farming sectors to cut emissions, with only a few setting targets or policies on tackling methane from livestock.
Technical fixes and measures
The report states that the focus has largely been on technical fixes, such as animal-feed additives, up to this point.
While this will help to reduce emissions by 30 million tonnes a year by 2030, the organisations’ report says a focus is needed on other measures also.
It outlines that a diet inclusive of less better, meat, and dairy could cut emissions by 80 million tonnes a year over the next few decades, and deliver over half the cuts needed to avoid 0.3oC of global heating by the 2040s.
According to the report, methane is responsible for almost a quarter of human-caused global warming to date, the gas has 82.5 times more warming potential than CO2 over a 20-year timespan, however it degrades in 12 years.
This means that a 45% cut in methane emissions could reduce global heating by 0.3°C in the next decade, which would give time for longer-term measures to come into effect.
Prof. Robert Howarth, earth systems scientist at Cornell University said:
“This report shows that there are many cheap and effective ways of cutting methane emissions.
“Tackling methane is the low-hanging fruit of climate action, which governments need to grasp if we are to have a chance of keeping global temperature rises below 1.5 degrees.”
More than 110 countries including Ireland have so far signed the ‘Global Methane Pledge,’ a commitment to reduce worldwide emissions of methane by 30% by 2030.
However, the report says the pledge falls short of the 45% reduction that the UN estimates is needed to limit global heating to 1.5C. As well as this, it says none of the governments signed up to the promise have set out comprehensive plans to cut emissions across all three sectors.
Marcello Mena, CEO of The Global Methane Hub said countries will soon have to realise they need to do more:
“This new report reminds us that we must deliver, and go beyond, the Global Methane Pledge. The sector-by-sector analysis of what must be done provides a clear roadmap that we must implement urgently.“
The importance of cutting non-CO2 emissions such as methane is expected to be highlighted in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on climate solutions, which is due out on Monday (April 4).