The measure, which requires oil and gas producers to detect and fix leaks of the greenhouse gas, came as the U.S. vice president spoke at the COP28 climate summit.

Methane is not as widely discussed as the carbon dioxide that results from burning fossil fuels, but it has become a rare area of progress this week at the global talks.

It is the second-most abundant greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide. Methane only lingers in the atmosphere about a decade after it is released, but it is about 80 times more powerful in the short term at trapping heat than carbon dioxide, which remains in the air for centuries.

Basically: oil firms didn’t care about methane released into the atmosphere unless it reached concentrations high enough to cause fires and explosions. So there’s a history of things like oilfield equipment powered by releasing compressed methane, as well unfixed leaks and unlit flares. The Inflation Reduction Act has a tax on large-scale methane release by the oil and gas industry, so now there’s a lot of interest in finding and fixing leaks.