Is there More to Methane than Cow Farts?

It is not every day that farting cows seize the global news agenda. But those flatulent beasts have managed to do it at two consecutive global climate change summits – at COP26 in Glasgow in 2021 and more recently at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh in November 2022 – and even got the attention of U.S. President Joe Biden for the second year running.

President Biden wasn’t talking directly about cow farts. But he did, at COP27, explain how methane – and the flatulent cows that expel a significant proportion of it – was a major contributor to the climate crisis.

Back in COP26,?President Biden described methane?as “one of the most potent greenhouse gases there is,” and the U.S. along with 100 other countries signed up to the?Global Methane Pledge. The aim is to cut emissions of the harmful greenhouse gas by at least 30 percent from 2020 levels by 2030.

At COP27, the number of signatories had risen to 150 countries. More than 50 countries had also developed?national methane action plans, or are in the process of doing so. This includes the U.S., which pledged to cut methane emissions by?87 percent?by 2030 from 2005 levels. In addition, the UN launched the?Methane Alert and Response System?(MARS) at COP27 – a public database of global methane leaks detected by space satellites.

Why methane emissions matter

International attempts to reduce global warming have so far been primarily focused on cutting emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2). But methane – a colorless, odorless gas made from carbon and hydrogen – is one of the most damaging greenhouse gases and responsible for?around 30 percent of all global warming caused by human activity.

It remains true that CO2 is the greenhouse gas with the greatest impact: there is more CO2 in the atmosphere, and it also remains there for much longer. Whereas?methane will mostly be removed from the atmosphere by chemical reaction?in little over a decade, CO2 can continue to affect the Earth’s climate for thousands of years.

However, it is also true that individual molecules of methane have a greater warming effect on the atmosphere than individual molecules of CO2. In fact, over a 100-year period,?methane is between 28 and 34 times more warming than CO2. (Methane also affects air quality by contributing to the?formation of ground-level ozone, a dangerous pollutant.)

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