Amid efforts to cool global warming, the battle hinges on targeting such super-pollutants as methane, which emits one third of the world's greenhouse gases and "is a fight we can win", the UN chief on Wednesday.
"The climate crisis is accelerating, and we are now on course to overshoot the 1.5°C limit in the coming years," UN Secretary-General António Guterres told delegates at the super-pollutants reception during London Climate Action Week, which runs from 20 to 28 June.
"Reducing methane is a fight we can win and benefit from in our own time," he said. "Our task is to keep that overshoot as small, short and safe as possible and to bring temperatures back down. That can't happen without drastically reducing emissions, starting now, and accelerating the shift away from fossil fuels, starting now."
To do so demands that the world move fast on super-pollutants, which are potent greenhouse gases behind nearly half the global warming to date.
Existing tech can eliminate 'super super-pollutant' methane
Invisible, odourless and driving nearly a third of current global warming, methane is the key ingredient in natural gas and "is the super super-pollutant", the UN chief said, adding that, unlike carbon dioxide, it breaks down in a decade or two.
"Cutting methane is the single fastest brake we can pull on a warming planet," he said, pointing to the newly launched global Call to Action on Methane ,
The International Energy Agency finds that around 70 per cent of methane from oil and gas can be eliminated with existing technologies at low or no net cost, and thanks to satellites, "we can track methane pollution where it happens as it happens," he said.
'Age of voluntary action is over'
The UN chief set out three steps governments and industry can take towards tackling methane's negative effects:
- Detect and fix every leak and eliminate routine flaring and cold venting
- Make emissions measurable, reportable and verifiable
- Adopt a science-based global methane standard and build a market for near-zero-methane energy
"Countries like Norway have already shown the way," he said. "If every producer matched its standards, methane from oil and gas would fall by 90 per cent."
The world acted to heal the ozone layer and phase out leaded petrol and now, it must act on methane pollution, the UN chief said, emphasising that "the age of voluntary action is over."
Indeed, more than 70 per cent of the reduction potential lies within the G20 and much of it within the fossil fuel sector, and "that is where we must zero in to zero out methane."
'Test of climate solidarity'
Developing countries need finance, technology and capacity to accelerate action across agriculture, waste and fossil fuels, the Secretary-General said.
"This is also a test of climate solidarity," he declared, pledging that the UN will stand with every nation ready to act.
"Let's be the generation that pulls the climate emergency brake in time."
Financing climate action
Elaborating on that theme at a related financing for development forum in London, the UN chief outlined ways to help countries along a greener path.
The forum focused on unlocking the finance required to help countries transform and adapt to the climate crisis at a time when "climate adaptation is no longer about preparing for a distant future," Mr. Guterres said.
"It's about managing risks in real time as the searing heat now gripping London and far beyond makes unmistakably clear our climate is changing faster than our systems, our infrastructure and our institutions can handle," he said.
Ensuring 'climate justice'
With the World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) confirming that the past 11 years have been the hottest on record and scientists expecting global temperatures to exceed 1.5°C in the coming years, he said "we're entering a new era of climate risk."
As such, adaptation is a matter of "climate justice" while also being an economic necessity and development and security imperative, he said.
"Multilateral development banks, climate funds, donors, insurers and development partners must join forces to put pre-arranged finance within reach of developing countries," he said .
"Together, let's ensure that resilience becomes the foundation for a safer, more secure and more sustainable future and that resources are made available for that to be possible."
