The world is not moving quickly enough to achieve global goals to reduce methane emissions by the end of the decade, a United Nations report found.

Four years ago, over 100 countries signed a pledge to cut global methane emissions by 30 percent by 2030. The greenhouse gas is released by the burning of fossil fuels, leaky landfills and industrial agriculture. It warms the planet up to 80 times more than carbon dioxide over two decades and is responsible for roughly a third of all planetary warming.

Each year, oil, gas and coal industries pump out an estimated 120 million metric tons of methane or roughly a third of the world’s total, according to the International Energy Agency.

One of the U.N. programs uses satellite imagery to find methane leaks in dozens of countries. So far, it has detected over 14,000 plumes and sent thousands of pollution notifications to the parties responsible for leaks.

Meghan Demeter, the manager of the program, said it had seen large improvements over last year. But there’s still a long way to go: They have confirmed 25 cases in the course of the program’s existence where an alert prompted operators to plug a leak. In 2025, nearly 88 percent of the agency’s alerts went unaddressed.

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