What is India’s Stance on Methane Emissions, Potent Greenhouse Gas?

As global action intensifies highlighted by the upcoming 2025 Methane Mitigation Summit India balances climate goals with protecting food security and farmer livelihoods.

Methane Emissions

• Role of Methane:  Reducing Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions is essential to fight climate change. After carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane is the second most potent GHG, responsible for approximately one-third of global warming.
• Physical Properties: Methane is a colourless, odourless gas with natural and anthropogenic sources.
•  Natural Sources: Wetlands: Major natural source due to vegetation decomposition under water.
  • Other sources: Termites, volcanoes, and wildfires contribute to natural methane.
• Sources of Methane Emissions: Anthropogenic emissions primarily arise from three sectors:
  • Agriculture (40%) Includes animal manure and rice cultivation.
  • Fossil Fuels (35%): Emissions from extraction, processing, and distribution.
  • Waste Management (20%): Comes from landfills, open dumps, and wastewater treatment systems.
• Utility of Methane: Despite being a GHG, methane is widely used for electricity generation, heating, cooking, industrial processes (hydrogen, ammonia, methanol production) and transport as CNG/LNG, and in the form of renewable biogas
• Strategic Importance: Though it has a shorter lifespan than CO₂, methane is far more effective at trapping radiation. Given the intensifying climate crisis, mitigating methane emissions is now viewed as a high-impact, urgent strategy to combat global warming.

Methane Mitigation in Global Climate Efforts

• Foundational Frameworks: Efforts to reduce methane emissions have long been part of climate change mitigation. 
• UNFCC: The 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) established the principle of Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities (CBDR-RC).
  • It placed primary obligations on developed countries to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
  • However, the UNFCCC was only a framework and did not specify GHGs or binding targets.
• Kyoto Protocol (1997–2005): To implement the UNFCCC, the Kyoto Protocol was adopted in 1997 and enforced in 2005. It listed six GHGs, including methane, and imposed binding targets on developed countries.
• Paris Agreement (2015): Marked a shift to a voluntary, nationally determined approach. Still expected developed nations to lead on emissions reduction. Methane reduction was recognised as a cost-effective strategy to limit global warming.
• COP26 – Global Methane Pledge (GMP): Launched as a voluntary international initiative with the target to cut global methane emissions by at least 30% from 2020 levels by 2030.
• UNEP’s Monitoring Mechanisms: To support GMP and global transparency International Methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO) was launched.
• MARS: At COP27 (2022), Methane Alert and Response System (MARS) was introduced — a satellite-based detection system to report methane emissions.
• COP28 – Oil and Gas Decarbonisation Charter (ODGC): Aimed at decarbonising the oil and gas sector, with a goal of Net-zero upstream methane emissions by 2030.
• COP29 – Declaration on Methane from Organic Waste: Over 30 countries endorsed this declaration to address methane from food scraps, agricultural residues, and sewage, which form nearly 20% of anthropogenic methane emissions.
• Global Methane Initiative (GMI): The Global Methane Initiative (GMI), launched in 2004 (formerly Methane to Markets Partnership), promotes
  • International cooperation and investments in methane reduction. Collaborates with the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC), Global Methane Hub, and the World Bank Group.
• Capacity Building: Over the years, GMI has raised awareness about methane’s climate and health impacts, sponsored events, and mobilised resources for methane mitigation.
• Upcoming Global Summit: Organised by the Industrial Decarbonisation Network, the Summit (June 2–4, 2025) in Austin, Texas (US) will gather energy companies, NGOs, and tech innovators and focus on measuring, monitoring, and reducing methane emissions in the oil and gas sector.

India’s Stance on Methane Emissions

• Global Methane Pledge (GMP): India has not joined the Global Methane Pledge (GMP) due to concerns over shifting the global focus from carbon dioxide (CO₂), with a 100-year lifespan, to methane, which has a 12-year lifespan.
• Sources: India’s methane emissions largely originate from the livestock sector (via enteric fermentation) and paddy cultivation. These are linked to subsistence activities of small and marginal farmers.
• Food Security vs Global Targets: Implementing the GMP in India could adversely impact:
  • Farmer incomes
  • Rice production, and
  • India’s status as a major rice exporter.
  • Such emissions in India are categorised as “survival emissions” — essential for food security, unlike the “luxury emissions” of industrialised agriculture in developed countries.
• No Extra Burden: Given their economic vulnerability, additional mitigation burdens cannot be imposed on small-scale Indian farmers.
• Sustainable Agriculture Measures: Under the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA), India is promoting methane-reducing practices in paddy cultivation such as:
  • System of Rice Intensification (SRI)
  • Direct Seeded Rice (DSR)
  • Crop Diversification Programme
• Livestock Sector Initiatives: The Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying (DAHD), via the National Livestock Mission, is working on:
  • Breed improvement
    Balanced rationing to reduce enteric fermentation
•  GOBAR-Dhan: Programmes like GOBAR-Dhan and the National Biogas and Organic Manure Programme also encourage biogas production from cattle waste and use of organic manure, promoting clean rural energy and GHG reduction.

Way Forward

• Methane Mitigation: Methane contributes to around 30% of global warming. If unchecked, anthropogenic methane emissions may rise by 13% between 2020 and 2030. 
  • Reducing methane is seen as the most impactful climate action the world can take today. But for a country like India, where methane is linked to food security, this remains complex.
• Financial Support: A substantial flow of climate finance from developed to developing countries is crucial to support methane reduction initiatives and enable ambitious climate actions in sectors tied to livelihoods and subsistence.
• Crop Diversification: Crop diversification schemes help reduce methane by shifting away from monoculture, making agriculture more resilient and sustainable.
• Sectoral Advantage: The energy sector is a major source of methane, yet it offers some of the most cost-effective and rapid reduction opportunities.
  • Fossil fuel-related methane is easier to detect, measure, and control.
  • Fewer actors (large companies) make enforcement easier than in agriculture.
• Responsibility of Developed Nations: Historically being the largest fossil fuel consumers, developed countries must lead the reforms by incentivising methane reduction in developing nations and Supporting through climate finance, technology transfer, and capacity building

Conclusion

The upcoming Methane Mitigation: Technology & Innovation Summit could accelerate global action in the energy sector and set the stage for broader efforts in hard-to-abate sectors, including agriculture