CLIMATE ACTION SHOW  - SUMMER SEASON

JANUARY 9th 2023. First broadcast February 2nd 2022

Produced at Radio 3CR by Vivien Langford

M E T H A N E

COP26:111 countries signed a pledge to slash methane by 30%. Australia didn't sign

Methane is bubbling up from the permafrost on land and sea. There is nothing we can do about that according to Dahr Jamail except slow the climate disruption which is melting the Arctic.

In this season on accountability we look at the COP26 Methane pledge

Guests

Ursula von der Leyden - President of the European Comission

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgkwfWiH_ic(link is external)

Dahr Jamail -

The End of Ice - Author and winner of the Martha Gelhorn prize for investigative journalism

https://theintercept.com/2019/05/04/climate-change-book-end-of-ice/(link is external)

Mark Howden -  interviewed by guest producer Amelia Goonerage

Director, ANU Institute for Climate, Energy and Disaster Solutions, Australian National University. 

https://theconversation.com/australias-refusal-to-sign-a-global-methane-...(link is external)

Music From dusk til dawn by Lapland Element orchestra

 A night with a midnight sun comes. The sun does not set under a horizon at all. Nature of a north polar region. The countless animals and plants which basked in the sun not setting shine in summer. Aurora covers the sky in the woods of silver frost in winter. People call it Lapland.

According to the journal Nature  February 2022

"The growth of methane emissions slowed around the turn of the millennium, but began a rapid and mysterious uptick around 2007. The spike has caused many researchers to worry that global warming is creating a feedback mechanism that will cause ever more methane to be released, making it even harder to rein in rising temperatures."

‘Dangerously Fast’ Methane Increase Suggests Feedback Mechanism May Have Begun - The Energy Mix(link is external)

Methane emissions are rising dangerously fast. Methane  is a short lived gas but affects the climate many more times than CO2. In terms of climate action cutting methane in agriculture and the fossil fuel industry is  the low hanging fruit we need to cut down with urgency and determination. Canada committed to reducing oil and gas methane emissions by 75% by 2030. What could Australia do?.

We are a gas producer, and here is an idea from the Centre for global development

• Oil and gas producing countries could volunteer to apply remote sensing (satellite) technology to measure—and fiscal policies to disincentivize—methane emissions from wasteful gas flaring (following Nigeria’s example), and also volunteer to implement existing gas monetization technology (following the example of Norway). Egypt (COP 27 chair) and Indonesia (G20 chair) could take leadership roles in this initiative;  

• https://www.cgdev.org/blog/practical-proposal-methane-2022-climate-pledg...(link is external)

• https://www.newscientist.com/article/2295810-cop26-105-countries-pledge-...(link is external)

• https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00312-2(link is external)

• BREAKING: Fossils Emit 70% More Methane than Governments Report: IEA Tracker - The Energy Mix(link is external)

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