Methane has a very large global warming potential, or ability to warm the climate. Methane is even more powerful than carbon dioxide: one unit of methane can warm the climate 27 times more than the same amount of carbon dioxide. 

At a time when the world is not on track to meet the global warming goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement, it is crucial to make changes with the biggest impacts. Given methane’s large global warming potential, reducing methane emissions is a very effective and necessary strategy to address climate change.

Rice fields produce around 9% of global human-caused methane emissions. This means that climate-smart rice farming strategies could help the world meet the Global Methane Pledge.

Although new technology, often spurred by private companies, is important for this mission, public policy plays a key role in promoting climate-smart farming. For example, farmers face many financial risks when changing their farming approaches. Governments can help by providing market-based tools (e.g. subsidies) or by building up markets that make climate-smart agriculture feasible or even the financially-better option! Alternatively, governments can create regulations where compliance requires a revamp of emission-heavy farming practices.