Introduction: The Need for Action to Address Methane Emissions

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas (GHG) emitted from a variety of natural and anthropogenic sources. On a ton-for-ton basis over a 100-year time frame, methane, methane has a global warming potential 28 to 34 times greater than carbon dioxide, the most common GHG. Over shorter time frames, methane is even more potent compared to carbon dioxide (e.g., 84 times on a 20-year basis). Therefore, near-term reductions in methane emissions can contribute significantly to global climate change mitigation efforts. In addition, reducing methane emissions can deliver a range of economic, environmental, and health co-benefits at the local and national levels.

National-level action is critical for creating the enabling conditions needed to promote and incentivize methane mitigation at scale. The Global Methane Initiative (GMI) provides technical support to Partner Countries to accelerate the mitigation, recovery, and use of methane from the coal, oil and gas, and biogas sectors, which includes agriculture, municipal solid waste, and wastewater. This support helps governments achieve ambitious climate change reduction targets, including the Global Methane Pledge, a joint agreement signed by more than 150 countries to collectively cut methane emissions by 30 percent by 2030 relative to 2020 levels.

Overview of the GMI Policymaker Framework for Addressing Methane Emissions

The Global Methane Initiative (GMI) Policymaker Framework for Addressing Methane Emissions (the Framework), is designed to help energy and environmental policymakers address methane emissions systematically to accelerate progress toward national or subnational methane emissions reduction goals. The Framework depicts a step-by-step process for developing and implementing policies and programs to measure and reduce methane emissions economy-wide or in specific methane-emitting sectors, such as oil and gas, coal, and biogas. It provides links to helpful resources from GMI and other organizations that can help policymakers implement each step.

The Framework is intended for national policymakers and governmental ministries responsible for establishing national- or subnational-level environmental, climate, energy, or economic development policy.

Key Considerations

As policymakers work to address methane emissions, it is important to integrate communication, transparency, and capacity building into the process as much as possible.

• Effective communication with key stakeholders, including national level policymakers, ministry-level leaders, experts, and the public, ideally throughout the methane policy making process, is critical for building understanding and trust and developing and implementing targeted policies and programs. Effective communication requires open, continuous, and two-way dialogue.
• Transparency is crucial to demonstrating progress towards commitments, such as national methane emissions reduction goals or Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement. It is important to ensure transparency throughout the process of tracking and reporting of national methane emissions, and when developing and implementing emission projections, policies, and programs.
• Capacity Building is important to strengthen the capabilities of the institutions, organizations, and individuals that will develop and implement methane mitigation policies and programs. The Framework includes tools and resources under each step to help countries build their capacity to successfully accelerate the mitigation, recovery, and use of methane.

Disclaimer: The links to resources in this framework are provided for your reference. GMI is not responsible for the content on the linked websites and cannot attest to the accuracy of all of the information on these sites or guarantee that they have been updated.