World can and must act against methane pollution
The International Energy Agency finds that around 70 percent of methane from oil and gas can be eliminated with existing technologies.
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Daily TribuneThe International Energy Agency finds that around 70 percent of methane from oil and gas can be eliminated with existing technologies.
The climate crisis is accelerating — and we are now on course to overshoot the 1.5-degree limit in the coming years. Our task is to keep that overshoot as small, short, and safe as possible — and to bring temperatures back down. That can’t happen without drastically reducing emissions, starting now, and accelerating the shift away from fossil fuels, starting now. It requires steps to end deforestation and protect nature. And it demands the world to move fast on super pollutants — potent greenhouse gases behind nearly half the warming so far.
Methane is the super Super-pollutant. Invisible, odorless — and driving nearly a third of today’s global warming. But unlike carbon dioxide, it breaks down in a decade or two. So cutting methane is the single fastest brake we can pull on a warming planet.
This is why I launched yesterday a global Call to Action on Methane. It targets three major sources:
In agriculture — reducing emissions with proven tools that protect food security and farmers’ livelihoods.
In waste — cutting food waste, ending open dumping, and capturing emissions from landfills and wastewater.
And above all, in fossil fuels — where the prize is greatest, and the path is clearest.
In 2025 alone, 167 billion cubic meters of gas were flared into the sky — the highest level in six years and as much as Africa consumes in a year. According to the World Bank, that wasted gas was worth an estimated 54 billion dollars — roughly three-quarters of what it would cost to end routine flaring worldwide.
The International Energy Agency finds that around 70 percent of methane from oil and gas can be eliminated with existing technologies — at low or no net cost. And thanks to satellites, we can track methane pollution — where it happens, as it happens.
So I call on governments and industry to act. First: detect and fix every leak and eliminate routine flaring and cold venting.
Second: make emissions measurable, reportable and verifiable.
And third: adopt a science-based global methane standard — and build a market for near-zero-methane energy. Countries like Norway have already shown the way.
If every producer matched its standards, methane from oil and gas would fall by 90 percent.
The age of voluntary action is over. This is the moment for clear rules and standards — set by governments, delivered by industry. We have done it before. The world acted to heal the ozone layer. The world acted to phase out leaded petrol. The world can — and must — act on methane pollution.
And we must put the spotlight where the problem — and opportunities — are greatest. More than 70 percent of the reduction potential lies within the G20 and much of it within the fossil fuel sector. That is where we must zero in to zero out methane.
This is also a test of climate solidarity. Developing countries need finance, technology and capacity to accelerate action across agriculture, waste and fossil fuels.
The United Nations will stand with every nation ready to act. That is why I have tasked the United Nations Environment Program to advance our Call to Action. Building on its decades of work on methane, it will help governments, industry, investors and scientists set a science-based, near-zero standard for the oil and gas sector.
Climate action is often viewed as making sacrifices today for benefits that unfold across generations. But reducing methane is a fight that we can win — and benefit from in our own time. Let’s answer the call. Let’s be the generation that pulls the climate emergency brake in time.
(Excerpts of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks at the London Climate Week — Super Pollutants Reception in London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, on 14 June 2026.)
