The world must urgently cut its emissions of methane to rein in climate change, a UN report said Thursday (6 May) raising pressure on European Union policymakers who are drafting the bloc’s first methane regulations targeting fossil fuels. Because methane is a particularly potent greenhouse gas, tackling emissions offers the speediest option for curbing climate change, according to the United Nations’ Global Methane Assessment. The world could cut methane emissions driven by human activity by up to 45% by 2030 using currently available technologies, the report said. That would avoid nearly 0.3 degree Celsius of global warming by the 2040s. Failing to tackle methane, however, would push global climate goals out of reach, it added.