U.S. and EU Vow Steep Methane Cuts Ahead of Climate Summit
- Asks other nations to promise major cuts of greenhouse gas
- European Union has joined in effort to target methane
An image made with an infrared camera shows an emissions leak at a gas processing plant in West Texas, in 2019.
Photographer: Jonah M. Kessel/The New York Times/ReduxThe U.S. and European Union have agreed to a plan to cut emissions of methane by about a third by the end of the decade as part of a diplomatic push to get other nations to take aim at the powerful planet-warming gas, according to people familiar with the effort.
The U.S. is now asking other nations to join the “global methane pledge” -- an expected topic of discussion during a virtual meeting of the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate that President Joe Biden is convening on Friday. The meeting is timed to help build momentum before a United Nations-sponsored climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, set to run Oct. 31 to Nov. 12.