A new report by the United Nations Environment Program says reducing emissions of methane gas is vital for tackling climate change in the short-term.

Methane is produced when living things decompose. It persists for just a short time in the atmosphere unlike carbon dioxide but methane is a much more potent global warming gas than carbon dioxide. The report says urgent steps are     necessary in order to reduce methane if global warming is to be kept within a limit laid down in the Paris agreement signed by 200 countries in 2016.

The UN report says rapid and significant reductions in the greenhouse gas are possible using existing technologies and a very low cost.

Methane is also a source for another gas ozone in the lowest layer of the Earth's atmosphere known as the troposphere.