Thinking broadly about methane

To make progress towards reducing global methane emissions, we first need to make world citizens aware of overlooked, under-discussed, or insufficiently addressed aspects.

• In a world of eight billions and still growing, we need foremost to look onto the role of agriculture, particularly livestock and rice production. Methane produced both by ruminant animals and rice cultivation is a major contributor to global emissions. We need to discuss the impact of our food choices, sustainable farming practices, and potential for innovation in this area more broadly, with keeping equity considerations in mind.
• We need to find ways to prevent methane leakage during the extraction, storage, and transportation of fossil fuels.
• We need to find ways to cope with the decay of organic waste in landfills and waste treatment facilities that generates methane, through practices as better waste separation, composting and recycling, and methane capture from landfills.
• We need to bridge the gap between the orthodoxies for and against the use of pricing mechanisms, and seriously tackle subsidies that indirectly encourage methane emissions, such as those for certain types of agriculture and fossil fuel extraction.
• We need to see what role an international agreement can play in supporting innovation in the research on technological solutions to reduce methane emissions, without serving as sedative.
• We need to understand how the crucial role of natural wetlands in biodiversity and carbon sequestration can be balanced with ways to decrease their current significant methane emittions.

Together with addressing those areas where possibly impactful policies are already available but not yet adequately implemented, as methane capture in the fossil fuel industry and from landfills and waste treatment, sustainable agricultural practices, regulatory measures, introducing pricing, and reducing inadequate subsidies, we can build a plan that will make a significant impact to be a first step towards bringing the global temperature rise to an end!