Big oil agrees to slash methane emissions

Methane is responsible for perhaps 45% of current global warming. In debates over climate change the short-lived but highly potent greenhouse gas is nevertheless typically upstaged by carbon dioxide, which hangs around the atmosphere for hundreds of years. Not at this year’s annual UN climate summit, hosted by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in Dubai. “Methane is taking its rightful place as the single biggest and fastest way to slow warming,” declares Durwood Zaelke, a renowned methane-warrior at the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development, a think-tank.