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UN PhotoBAKU / COP29 METHANE REPORT
STORY: BAKU / COP29 METHANE REPORT
TRT: 03:59
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 15 NOVEMBER 2024, BAKU, AZERBAIJAN
1. Med shot, exterior, COP29 entrance
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Inger Andersen, Executive Director, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP):
“Greenhouse gas emissions are at their highest level. 2024 is on track to be the warmest on record. And we've seen deadly climate impacts from wildfires that gut forests to flood, that wash out homes and property and lives. So, the next round of climate pledges under the Paris Agreement must dramatically and very quickly slash greenhouse gas emissions so that we can avoid overshooting 1.5 and cranking these impacts up to a whole dimension of new levels.”
3. Wide shot, press conference room
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Inger Andersen, Executive Director, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP):
“We saw an increase in 2023 by 1.3 percent of CO2 emissions. That is unacceptable. We need to see much more and much more active decrease. But there, action to reduce methane emissions while we are still a hydrocarbon dependent economy and society has to play an absolutely strong role in this process.”
5. Wide shot, press conference room
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Inger Andersen, Executive Director, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP):
“Nations promised to cut their emissions by at least 30 percent by 2030. This report by Unit Emission International Methane Emissions Observatory, or IMEO, shows that while data driven tools are ready, governments and companies must engage at scale to translate their pledges and insights that we get from IMEO into climate action.”
7. Wide shot, press conference room
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Inger Andersen, Executive Director, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP):
“So, when we consider that only 1 percent of the 1200 notifications that we issued resulted in a response, then you don't need to be a math genius to calculate the potential big wins here. We have proven systems to identify major, major methane leaks so that they can be quickly stopped, often with relatively simple repairs. We are quite literally at times talking about screwing balls tighter or replacing filters.”
9. Wide shot, press conference room
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Inger Andersen, Executive Director, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP):
“Governments and oil and gas companies on whom much of the world's economy still rely on must stop paying lip-service to this challenge when answers are staring them right in the face. Instead, they should recognize the significant opportunity that this system presents and start responding to the alerts by plugging leaks that are spewing out climate warming methane into the atmosphere.”
11. Wide shot, press conference room
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Inger Andersen, Executive Director, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP):
“We need to look at other methane sources in waste and in agriculture and steel production to have the massive input. Let me stress, however, that cutting methane is not a get out of jail free card. We still need to decarbonize our economies and get that done fast. We need therefore to see action on the NDCs 3.0 and we need to see the 20 countries that are responsible for 77 percent of all emissions to take the lead, especially those with the longest historical trail of emissions.”
13. Wide shot, press conference room
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Inger Andersen, Executive Director, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP):
“Cutting methane emissions is one of the simplest and fastest action actions we can take to slow the global temperature rise while we do the hard long work of decarbonization to happen and we take that very fast so that we can avoid the very expensive adaptation costs.”
15. Wide shot, press conference room
16. SOUNDBITE (English) Inger Andersen, Executive Director, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP):
“Governments and the private sector must turn the screw on methane emissions, and they must do so now.”
17. Wide shot, press conference room
According to UN Environment Programme (UNEP), a high-tech system that identifies major methane leaks has delivered 1,200 notifications to governments and companies over the last two years, yet just one percent of notifications were responded to.
Despite commitments under the Global Methane Pledge to slash emissions 30 percent by 2030, a new report launched today (15 Nov) at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, ‘An Eye on Methane: Invisible but not unseen,’ highlights that methane plume alerts from the Methane Alert and Response System (MARS), part of UNEP’s International Methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO), represent an untapped opportunity for immediate climate action.
Atmospheric methane is the second biggest driver of anthropogenic global warming after carbon dioxide (CO2) and is over 80 times more powerful than CO2 in the near-term. Global methane emissions must be reduced 40-45 percent by 2030 to achieve cost-effective pathways that limit global warming to 1.5°C. Yet the latest science shows atmospheric concentrations of methane rising at record speed over the past 5 years.
Inger Andersen, UNEP Executive Director, said that to have any chance of getting global warming under control, methane emissions must come down, and come down fast.
She also said, “When we consider that only 1 percent of the 1200 notifications that we issued resulted in a response, then you don't need to be a math genius to calculate the potential big wins here. We have proven systems to identify major, major methane leaks so that they can be quickly stopped, often with relatively simple repairs. We are quite literally at times talking about screwing balls tighter or replacing filters.”
She added, “Governments and oil and gas companies on whom much of the world's economy still rely on must stop paying lip-service to this challenge when answers are staring them right in the face. Instead, they should recognize the significant opportunity that this system presents and start responding to the alerts by plugging leaks that are spewing out climate warming methane into the atmosphere.”
She concluded, “Governments and the private sector must turn the screw on methane emissions, and they must do so now.”
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