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(CNN) -
Slashing carbon dioxide emissions is critical to ending the climate crisis.
But, for the first time, the UN report on climate change emphasized the need to control a more insidious culprit: methane, an invisible, odorless gas with a short-term heating power that is more than 80 times. higher than that of carbon dioxide.
According to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the concentration of methane in the atmosphere is higher now than at any other time in at least 800,000 years.
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As the Earth is rapidly approaching the threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, scientists say methane emissions have to be cut fast.
Charles Koven, lead author of the IPCC report, said this is due to methane's incredible power to warm the planet.
"The fastest way we could mitigate some of the climate change that we are already seeing in the short term is by reducing methane," Koven told CNN.
"If we reduced methane emissions, it would act to offset one of these sources of warming."
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The easiest knob
If the world were to stop emitting carbon dioxide tomorrow, Koven said, global temperatures would not begin to cool for many years by how long the gas remains in the atmosphere.
Reducing methane is the easiest knob to turn to change the trajectory of global temperature in the next 10 years, he said.
Methane, the main component of natural gas we use for our kitchens and to heat our homes, can be produced in nature when volcanoes erupt and when plant matter decomposes.
But it is also pumped into the atmosphere in much larger quantities by landfills, livestock, and the oil and gas industry.
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Natural gas has been hailed as a "bridge fuel" that would lead the United States to transition to renewable energy because it is more efficient than coal and emits less carbon dioxide when burned.
An important factor for the industry is that there is an abundant supply of natural gas throughout the world and it is less expensive to extract it from the ground.
But proponents of this new "cleaner" gas overlooked a dangerous threat: that it could leak into the atmosphere without burning and cause major warming.
Methane Leaks
Methane can leach from oil and natural gas wells, natural gas pipelines, and equipment that does the processing.
According to data from the United States Energy Information Administration, the country has thousands of active wells for natural gas, millions of abandoned oil and gas wells, more than 3.2 million km of natural gas pipelines, and several refineries. that process gas.
One in three Americans lives in a county with oil and gas operations, posing risks to the climate and public health, according to a report from the Environmental Defense Fund.
Until recently it was difficult to track the location and magnitude of methane leaks.
Now infrared cameras and advanced satellites can estimate methane emissions around the world.
This gives scientists and regulators an idea of the gas that is released from the facilities.
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Climatologists from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration previously told CNN that pernicious changes in the climate system will intensify unless people stop using fuels that burn and release greenhouse gases like methane.
"In the case of carbon dioxide, we've always known about power plants and smokestacks and things like that. But in the case of methane, until a few years ago we didn't understand how much influence a small number of large sources really have had. "Robert Jackson, a professor of environmental science at Stanford University, told CNN.
"We didn't understand how long the queue was and how important super-emitters were in reducing emissions."
The latest IPCC assessment highlights that scientists now have a better understanding of how much methane is released by human activities such as agriculture and the fossil fuel industry, and how much it contributes to the climate crisis.
Around the world, fossil fuels, agriculture and coal mining are dramatically increasing methane emissions.
However, production and sources vary by region.
In North America, the majority - 14% of total methane emissions - come from oil and gas production, followed by livestock, which is responsible for 10%.
In China, coal mining is the main driver of methane, contributing 24% of total emissions.
Although agriculture is a major source of methane, Jackson said emissions from agricultural and food production would be more difficult to address.
"There are only certain things we can do with cattle," Jackson said.
"We can ask people to stop eating beef, or we can try giving livestock feed additives to change the microbes in their gut chemistry. But that's not easy to do in billions of cattle around the world." .
The weight of the oil and gas industry
The International Energy Agency estimates that the oil and gas industry worldwide can reduce methane by 75% using technology that is already available.
It also estimates that 40% of emissions could be reduced without additional costs, as the captured natural gas could be sold.
Methane emissions, highest in history 1:21
Climate activists like Lisa DeVille, a member of Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation, are urging policy makers to make tough methane cuts.
The Bakken Oilfield in North Dakota surrounds the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, where DeVille lives, with about 1,000 oil and gas wells.
In 2016, scientists discovered that they were leaking 275,000 tons of methane per year.
"This means that the land that is part of my identity as an indigenous woman has become an industrial zone full of pollution," DeVille said.
"This is unacceptable."
As a co-founder of the Fort Berthold Protectors of Water and Earth Rights group, DeVille is taking environmental regulations head-on.
In 2018, the organization successfully sued the Trump administration's Office of Land Management for backtracking a fundamental rule for methane waste prevention.
Global temperatures are now 1.1 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, according to the report, and the planet is already seeing the impact in the form of extreme fires, severe floods, relentless droughts and deadly heat waves.
The IPCC report makes clear that stopping methane emissions is key to slowing the 1.5 degree threshold.
Scientists say world leaders must act immediately to address all greenhouse gas emissions, and not just carbon dioxide.
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What will the United States do to reduce methane emissions?
Rick Duke, senior director and White House liaison for John Kerry, President Biden's special climate envoy, told CNN in a press call that reducing methane and methane leaks is a top priority for the Biden administration. .
"There has already been an incredible effort, largely behind the scenes, to prepare to move faster and more comprehensively to cut methane domestically, while also addressing this as a diplomatic imperative," Duke said.
The pressure is already building.
In June, DeVille discussed tribal issues with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan, particularly the need for a drastic reduction in methane emissions and the transition to clean energy quickly and equitably.
"What we do in the next few years will determine what kind of world we have, what kind of world we leave for our children," said DeVille, who is now seeking to meet with Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to discuss similar issues.
"We must quickly switch to clean energy, stop carbon pollution from fossil fuels and then methane leaks."
CNN's Drew Kann and John Keefe contributed to this report.
Climate change