At New York Climate Week, Heads of State Call for Mandatory Methane Mitigation
New York, 28 September 2025 - The Climate & Clean Air Coalition’s methane forum, co-hosted with Michael Bloomberg, was one of the most important meetings of Climate Week 2025. Ministers and current and former heads of State urged the world to take faster action to cut methane emissions to slow near-term warming. The call for binding methane mitigation starting with the oil and gas sector was heard throughout the week.
Barbados Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley stated that:
“We need to recognize that if we are going to reduce emissions, and I say this to you, President Lula, as we go into COP, we … need a legally binding global agreement for methane reduction. … I feel that we do not need to reinvent the wheel. The Montreal Protocol that allowed us to reduce HFCs is the most successful climate agreement in history. We can replicate it….”
President Macron of France agreed:
“We need binding objectives on methane. We know that this is a reachable goal…. This is the best way to reduce our emissions and it’s also a G7 priority.”
President Simina of the Federated States of Micronesia elaborated:
“Voluntary methane pledges are failing to reduce emissions. Markets cannot align and polluters cannot be held accountable without stronger mandatory measures at national, regional, and global level. We need clear, predictable, mandatory approaches to ensure success. … Excellencies, friends, we have done this before. When the ozone layer was in crisis, leaders forged the Montreal Protocol—a binding, enforceable system that saved lives, created markets, and restored balance. We must summon that same courage for methane.”
Tuvalu Prime Minister Feleti Teo also called for a binding methane agreement:
“Tuvalu therefore calls on major emitters to ... step up methane action with binding commitment. … The ICJ Advisory Opinion on Climate Change has made it crystal clear that inaction is not just immoral, it is unlawful. Together, we must rise to the challenge of honoring both legal and moral responsibility in safeguarding our shared future and pulling the emergency brake on methane. Cutting methane is the fastest scalable way to slow global warming, avoiding up to 0.3 degrees centigrade of warming by 2040 and buying critical time for long-term CO2 decarbonization strategies to take effect.”
UN Secretary-General Guterres summed it up when he stated that for success at COP30:
“Five areas are crucial: First, … the clean energy transition. … Second, methane…. Drastic cuts this decade are essential – and most can be achieved quickly and cheaply. … fossil fuel operations could cut 40% of methane emissions today with no net cost. ... The International Energy Agency estimates fossil fuel operations could cut 40% of methane emissions today with no net cost. Third, forests. We must end the destruction of nature’s greatest carbon sinks. This could deliver a fifth of needed emissions reductions by 2030.”
Durwood Zaelke, President of IGSD, wrapped up the meeting, along with Eamon Ryan, the former Environment Minister from Ireland. Durwood noted:
“This meeting on Wednesday the 23rd of September was one of the most important of Climate Week 2025, co-hosted by one of the most important climate organizations in the world, the CCAC, where every minister and current and former head of State drew their methane facts from this organization as they unanimously urged the world to take faster action to cut methane emissions and slow near-term warming. The call for binding methane mitigation starting with the oil and gas sector was heard and is clearly the way forward.”
In addition, Laurent Fabius, the president of COP21 and a member of the COP Presidents’ Circle, published an Op-Ed September 24th setting out options of developing a Montreal Protocol-inspired methane agreement and/or extending the European methane regulations. He builds his argument using the same basic framing and facts, that methane is responsible for 30% of historic warming, has the potential to avoid 0.3ºC in the next 15 years and 0.5ºC by 2050, and that the Montreal Protocol is one model.
Following Climate Week, on October 1st, the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change published a letter offering “Support for a strong and properly implemented EU Methane Regulation” signed by 42 leading institutional investors, representing more than EUR 4.75 trillion in assets, urging the European Commission, European Parliament, and European Union Member States “to maintain and implement the Regulation as adopted – including its timeline and core provisions”.
IGSD's full report on methane efforts at NYCW is available here.
