Bending the Methane Curve – The Fastest and Most Cost-effective Way of Cooling Down Our Planet

Methane is responsible for a third of global warming and produces 80-times more atmospheric warming than carbon dioxide over the first twenty years.. Yet, methane remains in the atmosphere only a decade in comparison to centuries of carbon dioxide. Despite being the fastest and most cost-effective way of reducing the rapid increase in temperature, methane reduction is often underprioritized, receiving less than 2 percent of global climate finance.

The World Bank’s Global Methane Reduction Platform for Development (CH4D) housed within the CSF, was launched at COP28 as the World Bank's hub for accelerating methane action in the high-emitter sectors of agri-food, waste and sanitation. CH4D is part of a larger institutional commitment towards global methane reduction, announced at COP28, and is complimented by the Global Flaring and Methane Reduction Partnership (GFMR), which focuses on reducing methane from the energy sector.

A Global Partnership Platform for a “Triple Win”

CH4D is supporting accelerated methane action through the deployment of transformative solutions for the livestock, rice, waste and sanitation through a “triple win” approach:

  • Near term GHG abatementNear-term GHG abatement
  • Enhance environmental resilienceEnhance environmental resilience
  • Empower livelihoods and health
  1. Near-term reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Methane management now is essential for limiting global temperature rise to 1.5ºC by the end of the century.
  2. Enhanced environmental resilience. Methane reduction provides a development lens for sustainability and resilience. Low methane agriculture and waste management practices also address pollution, regenerate ecosystems, build more sustainable and circular food systems, increase natural assets use efficiency, reduce wastage, and improve the capacity of risk-prone cities and regions to better adapt to climate change.
  3. Empowered livelihoods and health. Methane management generates employment and income opportunities and improves public health. Tested approaches have reduced production costs and increased the income of millions of poor farmers and city dwellers while improving air, soil and water management, animal health, manure treatment and diverted organic waste from landfills, to mention a few co-benefits.

CH4D Focus Areas

CH4D was designed and is being implemented on a fast-track mode, supporting developing countries through four key areas: 

  1. Scaling up successful projects into national programs. These national programs will deploy transformative solutions for livestock, rice production, waste management and sanitation. Building upon existing successful projects, including in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, where CH4D is supporting the government to scale up a Bank-financed project into a national program on low methane rice cultivation, from185,000 hectares to 1 million hectares with proven measures that reduce use of natural assets and increase yields and income of smallholder farmers while reducing methane.  
  2. Supporting early interventions in countries where methane emissions are set to rise exponentially. Catching countries at the start of their methane journey and helping them to stay on the right track. CH4D is supporting new approaches to livestock and waste management to integrate green growth pathways that curb methane emissions with major development gains. In Tanzania, for instance, that means potentially reducing 1 million tons of methane from livestock annually.
  3. Informing policy making and prioritizing investments by mainstreaming methane upfront in our main analytics and country engagements. CH4D is filling knowledge gaps, raising awareness, and supporting evidence-based policies and regulations. Methane reduction will be a core component in our Country Climate and Development Reports and Country Partnership Frameworks, which will help countries identify new abatement solutions. In Cambodia, for example, research showed that one single drainage system could reduce emissions intensity by 40% while generating a 30% saving in water use.
  4. Building strategic partnerships to unlock expertise and finance for the world to deliver at the speed and scale urgently needed.  CH4D is building a coalition with other donor agencies, scientific and research organizations, technology centers, civil society, and private companies innovating agri-food and waste solutions.

CH4D is informing the design, restructuring and/or implementation of more than 70 Bank-financed projects and policy dialogue across 24 countries.

  • Livestock: CH4D is supporting 16 countries, including China, India, and Brazil, which together account for 66% of global cattle population, improve productivity of meat and dairy with sustainability while reducing emissions. It is incentivizing farmers to improve animal health and feed; improving compost or generate bioenergy from manure; and providing training on best practices for grazing livestock.
  • Rice: CH4D is assisting 6 countries including China, India, Viet Nam, and Bangladesh, which produce 65% of the world’s rice, as well as major African rice producers to invest in systems that reduce emissions and use of synthetic fertilizers, save water, while improving crop yield. It is supporting better irrigation systems for rice paddies (to provide on-demand water without long-term flooding of fields which is the main source of emissions); and strengthening farmers’ cooperatives to collectively use dry seeding techniques and improve crop residue management.
  • Waste and sanitation: CH4D is supporting 14 countries, including densely populated cities in Egypt, Pakistan, and Türkiye to improve waste management systems (to reduce dumping and burning of organic waste which lead to health, environmental and climate risks). It is improving the collection and sorting of organic waste; closing or upgrading landfills with anaerobic digestors; and setting up treatment plants that transform waste into new resources and green jobs.

CH4D’s grants and advisory technical support are provided based on the following criteria:

  • Impact: Have measurable triple wins impacts.
  • Country ambition and ownership: Inform/enable countries to achieve their national development and climate objectives related to methane reduction (i.e., NDCs, roadmaps, pathways, etc.).
  • Scalability: Demonstrate behavioral change, scalability and/or mainstreaming of methane reduction into national and/or regional policies, programs and/or alike.
  • Leverage: Unlock additional resources, actions, partnerships, and/or engagements as applicable.

Key Initial Targets

  • Launch 15 country-led programs by June 2025 to mainstream the adoption of sustainable farming, livestock, waste management and energy supply practices
  • Slash up to 10 million tons of methane (over the investment life spans)
  • Benefit 150 million poor people by improving incomes and reducing production costs for farmers and the health and livability of city dwellers  
Back to Programs