Global Methane Pledge

Subject – Environment

Context – Biden unveils plan to cut methane emissions

Concept –

Global Methane Pledge, a U.S.–EU led effort to cut methane emissions by a third by the end of this decade.
Biden made the announcement at the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate (MEF), hosted virtually by the White House on Friday, in which leaders from several countries and the EU, as well as UN Secretary General AntónioGuterres and (India’s ) Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav, participated.

Methane –

Methane, a greenhouse gas, is 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide in terms of its global warming capacity. Approximately 40% of methane emitted is from natural sources and about 60% comes from human-influenced sources, including livestock farming, rice agriculture, biomass burning and so forth.
Methane is gas that is found in small quantities in Earth’s atmosphere. Methane is the simplest hydrocarbon, consisting of one carbon atom and four hydrogen atoms (CH4). Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas. It is flammable, and is used as a fuel worldwide.
Methane is produced by the breakdown or decay of organic material and can be introduced into the atmosphere by either natural processes – such as the decay of plant material in wetlands, the seepage of gas from underground deposits or the digestion of food by cattle – or human activities – such as oil and gas production, rice farming or waste management.
It is responsible for creating ground-level ozone, a dangerous air pollutant.