TANZANIA has been urged to join more than 110 countries to sign the Global Methane Pledge (GMP) in a move to tackle climate change.
According to the statement released in Dar es Salaam over the weekend by Nipe Fagio-a Tanzanian NGO collecting data to support decision-makers on developing restrictive policy on plastic production and an implementer of Zero Waste systems in Tanzania, to enable systemic change-the Global Methane Pledge is a joint agreement by the European Union and the United States to cut global methane emissions by 30 per cent by 2030.
In the statement, Ana Le Rocha, Nipe Fagio Executive Director said the Global Methane Pledge is a crucial step in tackling climate change and getting the world closer to the goals of the Paris Agreement to keep global temperature rise to below 2°C.
"The Global Methane Pledge is a huge step which will help cut global methane emissions by 30 per cent by 2030," said Ana. She added: "We, therefore, urge our government to join the 110 countries in support of the agreement towards tackling the climate change crisis in the country."
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas tens of times more powerful than carbon dioxide in warming the atmosphere. It is a short-lived climate pollutant with an atmospheric lifetime of roughly a decade.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) research shows that methane is responsible for at least a quarter of today's global warming and reducing human-caused methane, which accounts for more than half of all methane emissions, is one of the most effective ways of combatting climate change.
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Methane from human activity falls into three main sectors: agriculture (40 per cent), energy (35 per cent) and waste (20 per cent). Livestock farming is a key cause of methane in the agriculture sector. In the energy sector, oil and gas extraction, processing and distribution account for 23 per cent, and coal mining accounts for 12 per cent of emissions.
"With the recently new report released jointly by the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA), Changing Markets Foundation, and the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), it is easy and possible for our government to reduce methane emissions," she noted.
She reiterated that the report highlights that by tackling the waste sector, governments will get fast results using some of the easiest and most affordable methane reduction strategies available. Waste prevention, source-separation of organic discards, and other methods can reduce solid waste methane emissions by as much as 95 per cent by 2030.
"This report shows that as an implementer of zero waste systems in Tanzania, we're on the right track as it highlights that the most actionable steps we can take to reduce methane emissions include waste segregation at source and with our Zero Waste community-based model, waste separation is being done at source before being taken to the Material Recovery Facility (MRF). This helps reduce solid waste methane emissions by large percentages," she concluded.
