Methane Pollution Prevention

Our Mission

CATF was the first environmental group to publicly sound the alarm about the dangers of methane emissions and pollution. Our methane efforts are aimed at reducing emissions that will have the greatest impact on warming the planet over the near-term and offer the most promising pathways for action. Taken together, efforts to reduce methane emissions globally could prevent 0.3 degrees Celsius of warming along with numerous other public health and ecological benefits. Because methane has a much shorter atmospheric lifespan than carbon dioxide, significant cuts in its emissions will yield much faster reductions in planetary warming, as compared to reductions in carbon dioxide.

Our mission is to facilitate global reductions in human-caused methane emissions by building capacity of key stakeholders and pushing policies that protect people and the planet from the most harmful effects of climate change. 

CATF advocates for methane emissions reductions at the international, national, and sub-national levels, supporting scientific research and innovation, promoting policy initiatives, encouraging the development of financial mechanisms, and championing and defending standards that can dramatically reduce emissions. Rapid reductions in methane emissions from the energy, waste, and agriculture sectors are the only way to dramatically reduce the rate of global warming in the next 20 years.

En Español: Iniciativas de CATF en materia de Contaminantes Climáticos de Vida Corta

Our Strategy

CATF’s methane pollution prevention team employs five key strategies to achieve ambitious goals that reduce methane emissions globally: 

• Policy Advocacy and Implementation: Advocate for subnational, national, and regional regulations, policies, and measures that support implementation of methane mitigation solutions and practices. 
• Partnerships​: Build champions and partnerships in government, civil society, industry, and international organizations. 
• Research​ and Analysis: Perform research to highlight impacts and solutions and to better understand poorly characterized emissions sources. Leverage new data from satellites to drive policy. Build a team of experts to facilitate policy development and implementation. 
• Communications: Use strategic communications to elevate the need for fast mitigation of methane alongside efforts to cut CO2.  
• High-level Diplomacy: Create and strengthen multilateral and bilateral commitments and engage high-level leaders on methane mitigation. 

Our Achievements

• Collaborated closely with Ghana’s EPA to provide analysis and capacity building which led to the Petroleum Regulations being passed into law in 2025 – the country’s first regulatory framework which will ensure that methane mitigation is a measurable and enforceable part of petroleum operations in Ghana.  
• Launched a rapid response Fossil Fuel Regulatory Programme with the Climate and Clean Air Coalition which provides tailored regulatory and policy support to countries to take immediate action to cut methane emissions from their oil, gas, and coal sectors. 
• Instrumental in finalizing U.S. EPA’s oil and gas methane standards, greenhouse gas reporting requirement updates, and methane fee for the oil and gas sector. 
• Played a decisive role in passing the groundbreaking EU Methane Regulation and the world’s first methane import standard, which have the potential to reduce global oil and gas methane emissions by 30%. Our #CutMethaneEU campaign continues to raise awareness and drive progress in domestic implementation of the rules. 
• Launched the Waste Methane Assessment Platform (WasteMAP) initiative with our partners at RMI. 
• Expanded waste sector methane advocacy to  Latin America and the Caribbean and Africa working in Colombia, Mexico, Ecuador, and Brazil.  
• Expanded coal mine methane policy advocacy efforts to Australia,  Europe, and Asia, focused on capacity building and mitigation best practices. 
• Advanced agriculture methane emissions reduction through collaboration with government and industry in Argentina, Paraguay, the U.S., UK, and Brazil. 
• Set the stage for policy development in Nigeria through collaboration, resulting in the first regulations to curb methane emissions in the energy sector on the continent.  
• Fostered capacity building and knowledge sharing on methane pollution, paving the way for Colombia’s landmark accomplishment of flaring and fugitive emissions regulations in 2022, the first in South America.   
• Catalyzed action on methane by supporting the launch of the Global Methane Pledge in 2021, fostering participation of over 150 nations to date. 
• Successfully advocated for strong, nationwide oil and gas methane regulations in Mexico and Canada.  
• Helped secure the first-ever nationally applicable methane standards for new oil and gas sources in the U.S. in 2016.