To Avert Climate Disaster, We Need Firm Commitments On Cutting Methane At COP28. According to The Hill, “The key goal of the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) negotiations beginning in Dubai this week must be to limit fast-rising temperatures, to prevent runaway warming that could destabilize the global climate system and inflict devastating floods, heat waves, fires and other disastrous impacts on billions of people around the globe. While a number of other outcomes are important in Dubai, they must be subsidiary to the crucial test of slowing near-term global temperature rises and preventing climate calamity.” [The Hill, 11/29/23 (=)]

Politics And Technology Are Pushing Oil Firms To Cut Methane. “Most discussions about climate change revolve around carbon dioxide. But that is not the only greenhouse gas. As delegates gather in Dubai for the cop28 summit, an annual un-sponsored climate chinwag, much attention will be focused on methane instead. Unlike carbon dioxide, which lingers in the air for centuries, methane hangs around for only a decade or so. But during that time it prevents more than 80 times as much heat from escaping. Nearly 45% of the difference between the world’s temperature in the 2010s and its temperature in the second half of the 19th century was due to methane’s warming effects. Methane emissions can often be cut cheaply. But until recently few have bothered to try.” [The Economist, 11/29/23 (=)]

These Companies Are Pushing Back on Science Showing Their Pollution. According to Bloomberg, “The blotches on grainy satellite images might not mean much to the average person, but to the Spanish scientists experimenting with new ways to track greenhouse gas emissions, they were a staggering discovery. The snapshots and other data suggested that over 17 days in December 2021, an oil platform operated by Petroleos Mexicanos, the state-owned energy giant known as Pemex, spewed tons of planet-warming methane into the atmosphere. The researchers posited that they were likely caused by two malfunctioning flares and estimated that the amount released was equivalent to about 3% of the annual emissions from Mexico’s entire oil and gas sector.” [Bloomberg, 11/30/23 (=)]