Name: How to Pull the Emergency Brake on Global Warming | Mohamed A. Sultan | TED
Uploaded: 2025-11-30T09:26:46.000Z
Duration: 12 min 17 s
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Well, that smell is probably not the worst thing that it produces methane gases, and

you cannot see or smell it until it catches fire.

And that's unfortunately what's been happening in many cities across the continent.

In Dakar and Accra, in Kampala, Osaka, and recently at the Peter Maddicksburg landfill in South Africa.

Now, just imagine being one of the thousands of kids affected by that fire.

Every breath you take is kind of a tighter chest, a sharper headache.

And these landfills, they catch fire for many reasons.

One of them is that we keep sending organic waste there that decays in the absence of oxygen, creating the conditions for methane to come up.

There's many ways that we know how to solve this question of dangerous landfills.

First of all, stop producing as much waste and sending it there.

Sort and treat what's already there and radically improve the governance of those sites.

Doing that homework has immediate benefits, particularly for populations living nearby.

It improves air quality and it reduces the risk of fire.

And it turns out that addressing methane out of these landfills plays a very important role in tackling the global question of climate change.

I'm a social and economic development professional.

I've spent the bulk of my career looking at how this continent transforms to meet the demands and the ambitions of its people at the intersection of democracy, security, and

And it's kind of always been clear to me, right, to get to a certain degree of sustainable development, we need to embed climate in our plans.

And I've joined the Global Methane Hub, and

it's become abundantly clear that effective climate progress also requires methane action.

And that is because methane is such a powerful greenhouse gas.

It has Contributed up to 45% of the net warming that we're experiencing today.

That's because it is 86 times more powerful at trapping heat than carbon dioxide is.

Over 20 years and all of you and myself, we know that we've got to do so many things simultaneously to address this question of both climate and development.

And long term decarbonization is one of the primary goals.

But methane offers us an additional opportunity.

If we're able to come together and reduce methane emissions by 50% over the next 20 years, it allows us the opportunity to lower the rate of global warming by 0.3 degrees Celsius.

That may not sound like much, but it is a lifeline.

It is also one of the most effective ways that we know of to reduce short term climate induced vulnerability.

And that is important all over the globe.

Obviously, but it is critically important for this continent that's disproportionately affected by the effects of climate change.

We lose up to 5% of our yearly economic output to adverse climate events.

The costs of adapting societies, our societies and our economies to changing climate are skyrocketing upwards of $50 billion.

So this idea of addressing short term vulnerability, it's not a nice to have.

It's an imperative as we build towards long term resilience.

And look, 60% of these vulnerability inducing emissions come from sectors that have traditionally been associated with economic progress.

Fossil fuel energy, waste management and sanitation, as well as agriculture, rice production and livestock.

And what you're seeing behind me is a map that shows you cumulative emissions over the past 50 years.

You have sharp eyes and you're seeing that some regions are emitting a lot more than others and need to do a lot more and a lot faster to address their own emissions.

If we're going to meet our collective objectives.

You'll notice that Africa has a lower footprint than many other regions.

It's changing because we're growing populations, we're growing our economies, and

so we've kind of got to embrace this duality where we absolutely need to usher in a new developmental model that rapidly lifts people out of poverty, creates opportunity and provides for more dignity.

But to do so in a way that minimizes these emissions that are creating the vulnerability that plagues us today.

And luckily, it's happening in many ways on the continent.

Let's think back to those burning landfills that we discussed.

Well, in Durban, a different picture is coming up.

Organizations have come together, civil society, government officials, research institutions, to ensure that no or less organic waste ends up in a landfill 35 km outside of the city, and

therefore, hopefully limiting methane emissions.

And to do so, they've partnered with two of the largest city fruit and vegetable markets.

And rather than throwing away unused or unsold produce, they collect it and they transform it into an asset class.

Remarkably, over two years, they've been able to divert 277 tons of organic waste away from that landfill.

They've created sustainable, safe, well paying jobs for the community.

They have reduced the city's cost in landfilling and transportation.

And that compost that you're seeing is going in to improve the quality of city parks that families like yours and mine can end up enjoying.

These are real benefits that also end up reducing methane.

And it is the power of community driven action, underpinned by a circular economy approach that is part and parcel of the systemic change that we need to see and that needs to be supported by better policy, better financing and improved governance.

But let's also talk about energy, fossil fuels, right?

Major contributor to global methane emissions.

It is also one of the sectors where we kind of know how to abate at costs in the short term.

But let's also be very clear, this continent will need more energy for better development.

That's an existential question for us and luckily for all of us actually in this room, 80% of new generation capacity coming online in the next few years here will come from renewables.

And if we're able to strategically pair that with adequate investments and adequate planning, it accelerates our ability to diversify our energy mix away from reliance on fossil fuels.

And that is really important, first and foremost for our own energy security.

It is also critically important because it helps us abate emissions today as we transition in the long term.

Because, mind you, the industry, oil and gas industry in particular, absolutely knows how to solve their emissions problem.

Detect and plug your leaks, improve measurement, do it all over again.

It's just not happening at the scale and the speed that we need it to happen.

We just cannot rely on voluntary commitments.

We absolutely need regulatory frameworks that compel core production, because otherwise, this is what we get.

It is the burning of methane gas associated with oil extraction.

And it is as dangerous, as wasteful as it looks, right?

It is associated with high levels of respiratory diseases and high fevers, particularly in children.

And astonishingly, 2 million people in the Niger Delta in Nigeria live within a four kilometer radius of one of these things.

And that's exactly what the government of Nigeria has been trying to do.

It has essentially passed progressive regulation to ensure that it is banning flaring.

Enforcement is where the challenge is, obviously, but

they're doing so because it makes sense from a public health perspective and it saves lives.

But it also fundamentally makes economic sense.

It creates a potential revenue stream for government from non compliant actors, but

it also reduces energy waste in a country that is plagued with energy insecurity.

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How to Pull the Emergency Brake on Global Warming | Mohamed A. Sultan | TED

essentially

absolutely

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opportunity