This year, scientists are emphasizing the importance of focusing on another powerful greenhouse gas - methane - in order to prevent catastrophic global warming. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report on Monday urging countries to reduce methane emissions quickly and significantly in addition to reducing CO2 emissions. This plea may create concerns for countries that are transitioning to natural gas as a cleaner alternative to coal, as well as for countries with significant agriculture and livestock industries, particularly cattle. Despite both methane and CO2 contributing to atmospheric warming, they are not equivalent in terms of their impact. A methane molecule has a greater immediate warming impact compared to a CO2 molecule, but CO2 lingers in the atmosphere for hundreds of years while methane disappears within two decades. The recent IPCC report emphasizes the importance of reducing methane emissions, with expert Durwood Zaelke stating that cutting methane is the most effective and rapid strategy for mitigating global warming. The urgency to address methane emissions is due to the fact that the current global temperature is already 1.1C higher than the preindustrial average, largely because of emissions released since the mid-1800s. The report suggests that if pollution had not reflected some of the sun's radiation back into space, the world would have experienced an additional 0.5C of warming. As the world moves away from fossil fuels and addresses air pollution, the disappearance of aerosols could lead to a spike in temperatures. Quickly reducing methane emissions could counteract this effect and improve air quality, according to Maisa Rojas Corradi, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Chile and author of the IPCC report summary. Methane emissions are responsible for about 30% of global warming since the pre-industrial era, as stated by the United Nations. The IPCC had not previously discussed the impact of methane, aerosols, and other short-lived climate pollutants. Jane Lubchenco, deputy director for climate and environment at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, highlighted the immediate benefits of significant reductions in methane in a recent report. The report also emphasized the positive impact on human health from improved air quality. Mark Brownstein, senior vice president of energy at Environmental Defense Fund, urged countries to implement aggressive methane reduction plans in oil and gas production. He noted that addressing methane emissions from landfills and energy companies may be easier than tackling large-scale agricultural methane due to the lack of scaled-up replacement technology. The EU and the United States are planning to introduce stricter regulations on oil and gas companies to monitor and report methane emissions, with the US expected to unveil regulations by September. These regulations are more stringent than those issued by the Obama administration but subsequently rolled back by former President Donald Trump. The US and the EU together represent over a third of global natural gas consumption. Countries like Brazil and Russia, which lack strict regulations on oil and gas production or agriculture, are also likely to be significant methane emitters, according to IPCC co-author Paulo Artaxo. He noted that quantifying methane leakage from gas and oil wells is a challenging task. If countries do not actively search for it, they will not discover it. Certain environmental organizations and government authorities are advocating for a worldwide agreement on methane, similar to the Montreal Protocol that addressed ozone depletion. This agreement could initially focus on methane emissions from the oil and gas sector, as they already possess the technology to reduce these emissions, according to Armond Cohen, executive director of the Clean Air Task Force, a climate technology group based in Boston. Cohen stated that controlling methane emissions is not a complex task and does not require any new or unusual technology. "So, we should begin from that point."