Methane (Environment and Climate Change Committee Report)

Lord Jay of Ewelme Excerpts

Tuesday 13th May 2025 Grand Committee

[Lord Jay of Ewelme (CB)]

My Lords, I am delighted to be a member of the Environment and Climate Change Committee under the excellent and expert chairmanship of the noble Baroness, Lady Sheehan. I joined the committee just as the report was being finalised, so I regard myself as a methane learner rather than as a serious contributor to this excellent report. However, I was struck by two things. The first, as some others have mentioned, was the sheer potency of methane, which is 80 times more potent than CO₂ but with a much shorter lifespan, remaining in the atmosphere for around 12 years compared to CO₂ remaining for up to 2,000 years. This means that curbing methane production is a highly effective way of reducing global emissions overall, as the noble Lord, Lord Trees, has eloquently said.

The second striking point was how much methane emissions had already been reduced in this country and how much harder it will be to reduce emissions in future—hence the report’s title, Methane: Keep Up the Momentum.

As for our recommendations, I want to focus on only two things. First, I really do think that it would help if the Government were to publish a methane action plan in order to show clearly, both here in Britain and to others, our determination to take the necessary action. It disappointing that the Government have rejected that recommendation. Can the Minister confirm that the updated plan for carbon budgets will set out in detail key methane policies for the period up to 2030?

Secondly, we must do all we can to encourage other countries to reduce methane emissions. In particular, it is disappointing that, since the 2021 Global Methane Pledge was launched under the UK’s COP presidency, global methane emissions have continued to rise; and that the 2021 methane pledge looks increasingly unrealisable. Reversing this trend will be all the harder now that the Americans have left the field; indeed, at times, they seem to be tearing up the pitch. The Minister will, I hope, confirm that the UK will reinforce its efforts to persuade others to honour their objectives, working with like-minded nations and groupings—including the EU and New Zealand—in particular at COP 30.

I shall now focus on a slightly broader point. The overall context for countering climate change has become quite a bit bleaker since we wrote our report. Wars proliferate. The United States has, as I said, left the field. But the challenges are as difficult and important as ever. The Climate Change Committee’s recent assessment that the UK’s preparations for climate change are inadequate gives us all at least pause for thought. I hope that the Minister will give us his views on that assessment as he winds up. In a democracy, it is never easy to take tough decisions now to benefit future generations, but that is the responsible thing to do. Future generations will not look kindly on us if we fail. Can the Minister confirm that the Government remain utterly committed to reaching net zero by 2050 and to meeting the new target in this year’s nationally determined contribution?

I have one final point to make. This morning, a friend asked me what I was going to do today. I said that I would be speaking in a debate here in the House of Lords on methane. “Oh God, how boring”, she said. I disabused her, of course, but she hit on a rather crucial point. There is a huge gap between the readily understandable goal—cooling the planet over the next 50 years or so, saving millions of lives—and what are for many people the numbingly boring details needed to achieve that goal, including aerobic digesters and changes in cattle feed, important though they are. Can the Minister confirm that the Government will do all they can to close that gap and, in their communications, to link the measures with the goal?