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NGO Statement in Response to Draft COP26 Agreement

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GLASGOW – Alongside 11 NGOs, we call on negotiators to elevate methane mitigation in in the final CMA decision. Our statement:

“Limiting warming to 1.5 °C. requires rapid and sustained reductions of emissions from methane and other non-CO2 short-lived climate pollutants, along with rapid and sustained reductions in CO2 emissions. 

This is the conclusion of the IPCC’s Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C. It also is the conclusion of UNEP & Climate & Clean Air Coalition (2021) Global Methane Assessment: Benefits and Costs of Mitigating Methane Emissions.  And it is the conclusion of AR 6.

It is not possible to slow warming in the critical next decade or two without reducing the non-CO2 climate pollutants. We urge COP26 negotiators to reflect these scientific conclusions and build on the momentum of the Global Methane Pledge in the final CMA decision.”

This statement comes just a week after the launch of the Global Methane Pledge in Glasgow.

The pledge commits signatories to a collective goal of reducing methane emissions by at least 30% from 2020 levels by 2030. The U.S. and EU announced it in September and have so far recruited more than 100 world governments to join.

Reducing methane emissions is required to keep the planet from warming beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius, helping to maintain a safe climate. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), methane is responsible for about half of the 1.0 degree Celsius net rise in global average temperature since the pre-industrial era, and action to rapidly cut methane pollution is the clearest opportunity humanity has to reduce the amount of warming Earth will experience in the next 20 years.

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