Fast Track to Net Zero

As COP30 unfolds in Belém, methane is finally beginning to receive the global attention its climate impact warrants. But attention alone won’t shift markets. To unlock the rapid, near-term reductions required for a 1.5°C pathway, policymakers need tools that translate ambition into action — tools that guide capital flows, define credible abatement measures, and safeguard environmental integrity. 

Climate Bonds’ new report, “Fast Track to Net Zero,”  provides that structure, showing how governments, investors, and corporates can accelerate methane mitigation across the oil & gas, waste, and agrifood sectors. 

Human-made methane emissions account for about 30% of global warming, and a 45% reduction in methane emissions is needed to safeguard 1.5°C. Those rapid reductions will require collaboration between industries, investors, and policymakers to drive capital to credible and ambitious methane abatement measures. Our new report lays out how the global policy landscape can make this happen. 
 

Methane must be a policy priority

Methane abatement is crucial to safeguarding climate goals but the global policy landscape does not reflect this. The Global Methane Status Report, launched earlier this week at COP30 makes clear that current policy will only reduce methane emissions by 8% by 2030. 

Methane must be treated as a distinct climate challenge, not merely bundled into CO2-equivalent metrics, to ensure appropriate prioritisation in policy and finance. Specific policy is needed to make finance flow at scale to fund methane abatement.

In many ways, the methane challenge is very different to the CO2 challenge, so we need a methane-specific approach. This doesn’t mean its necessarily harder, however. 

Just a few countries and sectors dominate methane emissions. 7 countries account for half of all methane emissions. The coal sector in China alone accounts for 5% of global emissions. 

Abatement potential therefore is quite concentrated. 16 national sectors represent half of the abatement required to safeguard the Paris Agreement. 

Abatement paths for these highest-emitting countries are quite clear. Particularly for energy sector emissions, technological measures can significantly reduce emissions without significant change to everyday business practice. 77% of O&G emissions can be abated at near zero cost, generating a profit in certain circumstances.

However, many of the highest emitting nations are not even signatories to the Global Methane Pledge, so international efforts, like those we are seeing at COP, are vital. 

What can be done at the global level?

Methane has been rising up the agenda at COP since the COP26 Global Methane Pledge launch. International negotiations are prime fora to bring methane up the global agenda, on par with carbon dioxide, to help begin to channel finance to abatement. This includes setting expectations on inclusion of methane targets in NDCs, and broadening the global abatement discussion to include phase-out and behavioural change. 

Addressing blind spots: improving monitoring and accountability

Satellite monitoring provides important understanding of the level of methane emissions, key sources, and its atmospheric impact. It can also overcome national reporting discrepancies and provide independent data. However, there is a lack of comprehensive monitoring, which brings uncertainty to methane abatement targets and policies.

COP30 has already seen Bloomberg Philanthropies commit USD100m investment to support a comprehensive global methane emissions reporting system of “Methane Response Basecamps (MRBs)”  with Carbon Mapper and the Global Methane Hub.

Tackling supply chain emissions through import standards

Fossil fuel and agricultural product importers can set import standards to tackle supply chain emissions.

Import standards can drive abatement action from major exporters. The EU Methane Regulation’s zero routine flaring and venting requirement will apply to domestic producers and importers with one study suggesting it could reduce more than 30% of global oil and gas sector methane emissions.

The UK-led Statement on Drastically Reducing Methane Emissions in the Global Fossil Fuel Sector signed by other major O&G importers (France, Germany, Canada, Japan)  included a commitment to ‘effective use of market signals to accelerate methane emission reduction’ including through ‘rewarding’ producers working towards zero methane intensity in production. This suggests progression towards preferential purchase of low-methane products, use of differentiated purchase agreements to incentivise abatement above and beyond import standard requirements.

Driving abatement at the corporate level

Large energy companies and agrifood multinationals have methane emissions comparable with those of entire countries. The top 30 highest emitting companies account for 17% of global emissions.

Publicly-listed firms present multiple points of intervention to drive abatement: from shareholders and bondholders, customers, to regulators. Disclosure and transition plan requirements for listed companies can incentivise methane abatement in the companies that list on international financial markets, enabling policymakers to drive abatement of large international emitters through their financial systems. EU and UK disclosure requirements already call for standardised reporting of operational methane emissions and detailed timelines and mitigation plans on abatement targets, if the company has publicly set an emissions reduction target.

The energy sector presents a unique challenge for methane abatement, but also a tremendous opportunity for rapid action. Climate Bonds has joined with partner organisations to establish the Methane Finance Working Group (MFWG). This coalition, which includes organisations like the Environmental Defence Fund, the Rocky Mountain Institute, the Centre for Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, and many others, has created guidance to support credible investment in methane mitigation across the oil and sector. 

The guidance provides market-ready frameworks, like use of process bonds and KPI-linked instruments, to help investors and companies structure their financial around methane reduction goals. The aim is to mobilize around 175-200 billion by 2030 to meet methane reduction target and make the oil and gas sector part of the climate solution.

How transition finance can accelerate methane abatement

Climate Bonds’ paper, Inclusion of Methane Abatement Measures in Transition Finance, adds a crucial financial perspective to the policy roadmap set out in Fast Track to Net Zero. While the COP30 policy paper focuses on what governments must do, this second report explains how the market can actually finance credible methane reduction across oil & gas and agrifood systems.

It highlights that methane abatement is one of the most cost-effective climate interventions available, yet investment remains far below what is required. Transition finance — when paired with strong guardrails — can channel capital into high-impact measures such as leak detection and repair, improved manure and rice management, biogas systems with sustainability checks, and other short-term levers that significantly cut emissions. The report also underscores the importance of robust monitoring and verification, noting that credible methane KPIs and technical guidance now exist through the Methane Finance Working Group.

Together with Climate Bonds’ agriculture and value-chain criteria, this framework enables corporates, sovereigns, and financial institutions to issue labelled debt or sustainability-linked instruments that support methane abatement without locking in high-emitting assets. In short, the new analysis shows that methane-specific transition finance is ready for scale — and can deliver rapid climate impact while broader decarbonisation strategies catch up.