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They promised to continue to enlist additional countries until its formal launch at COP 26 conference. To be effective, they need to get on board the big green-house gas emitters in the G20.
The pledge follows the alarming report released last month by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which warns that unless there are immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, limiting warming to close to 1.5°C or even 2°C will be beyond reach.
While the evidence is clear that carbon dioxide (CO2) is the main driver of climate change, other greenhouse gases and air pollutants also affect the climate, in particular methane (CH4). IPCC writes in its Summary for Policymakers that in 2019, the concentrations of CH4 was higher than at any time in at least 800,000 years.
Methane has a much shorter atmospheric lifetime than CO2 (around 12 years compared with centuries for CO2), but it is a much more potent greenhouse gas and accounts for about half of the 1.0 degrees Celsius net rise in global average temperature since the pre-industrial era. This implies that one tonne of methane has a much bigger impact than one tonne of carbon dioxide in the short-term term.
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原文来源：https://www.brusselstimes.com/news/eu-affairs/185695/eu-and-us-pledge-to-reduce-methane-emissions-in-energy-and-agriculture/
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