The Global Methane Hub (GMH), a philanthropic collaborative dedicated to reducing methane emissions globally, was created after the Global Methane Pledge was signed by more than 100 countries (now more than 150) at the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow at the end of 2021. GMH is funded primarily by philanthropy, and their oversight is by a Board of non-profit foundations, which make up its funders. Through the initial mobilization of more than 300 million U.S. dollars to support fast action on the dramatic reduction of methane gas, this collaborative supports ambitious catalytic investments and lays the groundwork for long-term transformation of challenging sectors.
Reducing methane gas is the fastest way to address climate change in the short term. GMH propels scientific research and technology development that can track, measure and reduce methane emissions, and promotes ambitious public policy and scaled-up finance to address the energy, agriculture and waste sectors which account for 96% of human-caused methane emissions. Its agriculture program’s strategic plan encompasses all the relevant components to catalyze and support more rapid action to reduce methane from agriculture production across the value chain, with the primary sources of agriculture methane being livestock and rice.
Innovation is a crucial part of the GMH agriculture program, which is necessary across all methane sources, but especially enteric, as the single largest source globally. This challenge requires significant investment and development of solutions to work across the multitude of ruminant livestock production systems around the world. In this regard, GMH is coordinating the Enteric Fermentation R&D Accelerator, which is the largest-ever, globally coordinated, public-private-philanthropic investment of breakthrough research tackling livestock methane emissions. This initiative is developing a strategic research agenda seeking global impact and will fund research to explore low-methane feeds and forages, methane inhibiting feed additives, breeding low-methane livestock, immunological studies for a methane vaccine, and low-cost methane measurement devices, to name a few. Following the launch of the Greener Cattle Initiative (GCI), whose mission is similar, GMH was eager to join the consortium to align its efforts. Being a part of this initiative has enabled GMH to guide and shape the direction of the research that is being funded through GCI.
Partnerships between organizations like FFAR and the GMH are crucial for tackling the grand challenges around enteric methane. The partnership between GMH and FFAR is invaluable, as they continue to fund groundbreaking research addressing enteric methane, moving that much closer to lessening agriculture’s environmental impact and mitigating climate change.