At the COP26 climate summit, the US has pledged to enact new measures to prevent methane leaks from oil and gas wells, while world leaders have promised to end deforestation by 2030. however, the two biggest polluters were absent.
COP26 overview: Two biggest polluters absent from summit
The leaders of two of the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases in the world, Vladimir Putin of Russia and Xi Jinping of China, are not in attendance at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, this week.
Xi submitted a written statement calling on nations to take action, but did not include a pledge of its own, Fox reported. Likewise, Putin issued a statement through a Kremlin spokesperson conveying that Russia considers climate action “one of the priorities of our foreign policy.”
Meanwhile, China is experiencing an energy crisis and has been plagued by blackouts. The nation is currently experiencing its worst power shortage in decades, leading to electricity rationing in most provinces, the Christian Science Monitor reported. China built forty-one gigawatts of coal power in 2020 along, accounting for seventy-five percent of the global total, according to the Council of Foreign Relations (CFR) report in early October 2021.
US commits to new measures to prevent methane leaks from gas and oil wells, EU also pledges
The Biden administration announced that it will be proposing stricter regulations to reduce the amount of methane leaking from oil and gas wells during industry operations, NPR reported.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), reducing methane, which is the main ingredient in natural gas, “would have a rapid and significant effect” on global warming.
EPA administrator Michael Regan estimated that proposed new regulations would reduce roughly 41 million tons of methane emissions by 2035. To put that number in perspective, it’s more than the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide emitted from all commercial aircraft and passenger cars in the US in 2019.
Dozens of countries commit to methane reduction
In addition to the US, the European Union pledged to reduce methane emissions by at least 30% by 2030 as compared to 2020 levels, the BBC reported.
Three biggest polluters don’t sign agreement
Three of the world’s biggest methane emitters – China, Russia, and India – did not join the agreement to reduce methane emissions, according to the BBC.
World leaders pledge to end deforestation by 2030
In the first major deal at the COP26 climate summit, world leaders have made a promise to end and reverse deforestation by 2030, the BBC reported. A total of 110 world leaders signed the agreement.
Deforestation contributes to climate change by depleting forests of trees that absorb vast amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere.
Among the signatories, Brazil, where vast stretches of the Amazon rain forest have been cut down, has joined in the pledge. The deforestation agreement includes $19.2 billion of public and private funds dedicated to the undertaking. As experts welcomed the move, they warned that a previous agreement made in 2014 had thus far “failed to slow deforestation at all.” The experts said stronger commitments need to be made and delivered on.
