Environment News

The Global Methane Hub’s Enteric Fermentation R&D Accelerator has published its Research Strategy, marking a milestone in the fight to tackle livestock methane emissions. The accelerator was launched last year with support from Gerstner Philanthropies, the Bezos Earth Fund, High Tide Foundation, and several other private and public funders. Agriculture accounts for 40% of global methane emissions, with 70% of that coming from methane produced during livestock digestion. As methane is 86 times more potent than CO2, this marks a significant step in the fight to curb climate change. “The Accelerator’s research strategy will address key knowledge gaps in each of the identified focus areas,” says Hayden Montgomery, Program Director of Agriculture. “As new scientific information emerges, additional research areas will be incorporated in the research strategy, ensuring it remains up-to-date and responsive to the latest developments, to ultimately, develop cost-effective mitigation solutions to directly decrease livestock methane emissions.”

MIT researchers are developing a system for reducing emissions of the potent greenhouse gas at dairy farms and other sites. Methane traps much more heat per pound than carbon dioxide, making it a powerful contributor to climate change. “In fact, methane emission removal is the fastest way that we can ensure immediate results for reduced global warming,” says Audrey Parker, a graduate student in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

The Mark Whittier and Lila Griswold Allam Associate Professor of Ruminant Nutrition, Dipti Pitta, PhD, at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine (Penn Vet) has received a $508,884 grant from Gerstner Philanthropies to support Pitta’s continuing work to imprint the rumen function and prevent methanogen colonization in dairy calves with the potential of permanently curbing methane emissions from dairy herds in the United States.

See Dr. Joseph McFadden of Cornell University delivering a presentation at COP28 on his research into reducing enteric methane emissions from livestock.

Today, at COP28, the Global Methane Hub (GMH) announced a more than $200 million funding initiative between public, private and philanthropic partners including the Bezos Earth Fund, Quadrature Climate Fund, Gerstner Philanthropies, High Tide Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The Zegar Family Foundation, Danone, the Governments of Ireland, New Zealand and the United States, for research and development (R&D) technologies to meaningfully address and reduce methane emissions from livestock.