Bloomberg invests $100 million in reducing methane leaks

Billionaire Mike Bloomberg's philanthropic organization announced Thursday a $100 million investment in efforts to cut emissions of methane -- a "super pollutant" greenhouse gas that has become an increasing focus of climate change talks.

The announcement comes as world leaders prepare to meet in the Brazilian Amazon for a summit ahead of annual UN climate negotiations.

"Methane emissions are one of the biggest causes of climate change, but also one of our biggest opportunities to make progress quickly," the 83-year-old former mayor of New York City told reporters on a call.

Bloomberg Philanthropies has been supporting satellite operations that monitor for methane leaks from oil, gas and coal operations, and partnering with organizations like Carbon Mapper that publicize these leaks and alert those responsible so they can take action.

The new injection of $100 million, which will bring the total amount committed by Bloomberg to $172 million since 2019, will support these efforts.

The announcement was lauded by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and French President Emmanuel Macron, with the latter saying in a statement that his nation was "ready to work alongside Bloomberg Philanthropies and all partners to deliver concrete results for climate, health, and our shared future."

Paris has pushed to make the issue a top priority ahead of COP30, to be held in the Brazilian city of Belem from November 10 to 21, given that a third of global warming is currently attributed to methane.

Methane is about 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period -- although it breaks down in the atmosphere far more quickly.

The largest sources of methane are agriculture, fossil fuels and decomposing landfill waste.

Speaking on the same call, Michelle Lujan Grisham, the governor of New Mexico, said her state had put in tough rules requiring fossil fuel operators to capture 98 percent of their produced natural gas and to make flaring -- the process of burning off excess gas, which is often imperfectly executed -- illegal.

"I need these investments and these companies and the satellite imagery that allows us to...measure our success," she said.

The US federal government under President Donald Trump has abandoned climate action and is staying away from the COP event.

However, companies and regulators in conservative-led states like Texas can still be responsive to information on methane leaks, according to Riley Duren of Carbon Mapper, adding: "In many cases, a big motivation is local safety and health."