Why curbing methane emissions will help fight climate change
It's a more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, and should be easier to control
THE HEADLINE of the latest pronouncement from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on the physical science of climate change is the finding that, even if the world cuts emissions by more than governments are promising, it is still “more likely than not” that Earth will be 1.5°C warmer by around 2050 than it was in the late 19th century.
That is important, and frightening, but hardly shocking. The aim of letting the world warm no more than 1.5°C, agreed on in Paris six years ago, is one to which many countries, notably the small-island states for which sea-level rise is an existential threat, are deeply committed. But many observers believe it stringent almost to the point of impossibility.
This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline "It is not all about the carbon"
From the August 14th 2021 edition
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