Leaders at global climate talks pledge to cut methane and save forests

Leaders at the COP26 global climate conference in Glasgow have pledged to stop deforestation by the end of the decade and slash emissions of the potent greenhouse gas methane to help slow climate change.

The inability of major powers so far to agree more broadly on rapid reductions in the use of fossil fuels, the main cause of manmade global warming, has upset the poorer, smaller countries likely to suffer its worst effects.

Surangel Whipps Jr, president of Palau, a Pacific state of 500 low-lying islands under threat from rising sea levels, told the leaders of the G20 industrial powers in a speech: "We are drowning and our only hope is the life-ring you are holding."

Nearly 90 countries have joined a U.S.- and EU-led effort to slash emissions of methane 30% by 2030 from 2020 levels, a senior Biden administration official said ahead of a formal announcement on Tuesday.