COP31: Methane is heating the planet, while the lowest-emitting nations and the poorest pay the price

Speaking from the podium at COP31 in Türkiye on Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026, U.N. Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell issued an urgent call for world leaders to crack down on methane and other "super-pollutants." 

At the center of international climate talks, the gas is a double-edged sword: while it serves as a pillar of the global energy economy and an essential daily fuel, leaks into the atmosphere sharply accelerate global warming. Behind this paradox lies a stark injustice, with the lowest-emitting countries and the world's poorest populations bearing the brunt of the damage.

Understanding what is at stake begins with the science. Defined by chemists and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as the simplest hydrocarbon—one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms—methane is invisible, odorless, and highly flammable in its natural state. It is the primary component of the natural gas used across industries and households. https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/science/climate-issues/methane

According to environmental researchers and the World Meteorological Organization, it forms mainly through methanogenesis, a biological process in which microorganisms break down organic matter without oxygen, such as in wetlands, landfills, and the digestive tracts of livestock. 

In daily life, methane is indispensable: it powers stoves, heats homes, and fuels power plants and factories. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), it accounts for roughly 23% of global energy consumption, trailing only oil and coal. https://www.iea.org/reports/global-methane-tracker-2026    

The danger lies not in methane when it is captured and burned for energy, but when it escapes unburned into the air. Data from the IEA and the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) show that human activity drives about 60% of global methane emissions—40% from agriculture and livestock, 35% from fossil fuels, and 20% from waste. 

While carbon dioxide lingers in the atmosphere for centuries, IPCC atmospheric physics research shows that methane breaks down through chemical oxidation in about 12 years. However, its molecular structure traps more than 80 times as much heat as carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. 

Scientists estimate it acts as a potent thermal blanket, responsible for roughly 30% of global warming since pre-industrial times. 

As Stiell, a native of the Caribbean island nation of Grenada, warned, this rapid heating is already destroying lives, wiping out livelihoods, and driving up the cost of basic goods.

The crisis hits hardest those who contributed least to causing it. Consolidated World Bank and U.N. assessments for 2023–2024 show that the entire African continent and small island states account for less than 4% of total global greenhouse gas emissions. 

Yet their farmlands are drying up, their coastlines are eroding, and their harvests are failing. For low-income families spending 50% to 70% of their household budgets on food, every drought or flood triggers an immediate food crisis. 

Compounding this is a severe public health threat documented by the World Health Organization and UNEP: through chemical reactions in the lower atmosphere, methane fuels the formation of ground-level ozone, a toxic air pollutant linked to nearly 1 million premature deaths annually from respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, disproportionately affecting farmers, outdoor laborers, and residents of informal settlements near open dumpsites.

Crucially, the solutions already exist and make financial sense. Assessments by the IEA and U.N. Climate Change indicate that the oil and gas industry could cut 70% of its methane leaks using existing technology at little or no net cost. Each year, energy companies flare or vent 167 billion cubic meters of natural gas—the equivalent of $54 billion in usable energy literally going up in smoke. 

In the solid waste sector, 75% of methane cuts could generate net savings by capturing landfill gas to produce electricity or cooking fuel. According to UNEP and the Climate and Clean Air Coalition, every $1 invested in tackling super-pollutants yields $15 in economic, agricultural, and health returns.

Progress remains stalled largely because financing is failing to reach the right places. Although more than 90% of countries—accounting for three-quarters of global methane emissions—have included reduction targets in their national climate pledges, international funding remains negligible. 

Official figures presented by the U.N. Climate Change secretariat in Antalya show that barely 0.5% of global climate finance earmarked for emissions cuts went to super-pollutants in 2023. Developing nations lack the capital to modernize landfills, convert waste into clean energy, and protect vulnerable communities.

To break the deadlock, the U.N. climate chief is calling for immediate action. He is urging development banks and wealthy nations to unlock financing and utilize the new U.N. carbon market, which directly funds landfill methane capture in developing countries. 

Cutting methane leaks by at least 45% by 2030 would prevent nearly 0.3°C of additional warming by 2040, according to U.N. estimates. 

While no substitute for phasing out fossil fuels, curbing methane remains the fastest, cheapest way to buy time and avert catastrophe for hundreds of millions of vulnerable people worldwide.

Irene GAOUDA