Overview:
The Federated States of Micronesia is calling for a binding global methane agreement, warning that voluntary measures are failing as climate impacts intensify across the Pacific. Following a devastating El Niño-related fish kill that affected communities and food security, FSM says urgent methane reductions are essential to slow warming and protect vulnerable island nations.
PONPHEI, 29 JUNE 2026 (PACNEWS) — The Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) has backed the United Nations Secretary-General’s call for urgent methane cuts and called for a binding global agreement to rapidly reduce emissions, saying the world is moving “rapidly in the wrong direction.”
FSM Secretary of Environment, Climate Change, and Emergency Management Florian Yatilman said Micronesia supports stronger global action on methane.
“The Federated States of Micronesia applauds the UN Secretary-General’s urgent call to cut methane emissions,” he said in a statement.
Yatilman said Micronesia has supported ambitious methane action since becoming one of the first signatories to the Global Methane Pledge.
“As one of the very first signatories of the Global Methane Pledge, we have and will continue to champion ambitious methane action and push at every opportunity for greater ambition,” he said.
Yatilman said the first signs of El Niño had already caused significant damage across the country’s islands.
“This month, the first signs of El Niño devastated communities in our archipelago. The waters heated and turned black, and tens of thousands of the reef fish we depend on for food suffocated and washed up on our shores. Scientists tell us it is only the beginning.
For small island states at the forefront of climate impacts, methane action is not a secondary solution. It is a primary, immediate answer to the crisis we are experiencing first had. It is the safety of our people, the integrity of our land and livelihoods, and the security of our future generations,” Yatilman stressed.
Yatilman said methane reductions offer an immediate way to slow global warming, but global action has not kept pace.
“A fast-acting cure to lower the planet’s fever exists, but the world is failing to use it.
“Methane reductions can prevent warming and reduce the exponential impacts that threaten islanders lives and millions of others worldwide. Instead of reducing emissions, this year methane gas leakage in the energy sector reached a new high, as have global temperatures.
The world is moving rapidly in the wrong direction! As the Secretary General has clearly explained, voluntary measures are failing to deliver. More serious global action is needed, or it could be too late. This is why we support the call for a binding agreement on methane to rapidly and radically reduce emissions by ending the waste of fossil gas,” he emphasised.
He said delaying action on methane is unacceptable.
“It is unconscionable to delay action on methane when millions are in danger but the solutions are in our hands,” Yatilman said…. PACNEWS
