While most governments are currently focussing on curbing down carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, this can no longer be a unilateral approach to prevent global temperatures from rising above the UN-mandated pre-industrial levels of 1.5 degree Celsius, as per a new study. However, reducing emissions of methane alongside often overlooked climate pollutants, can cut the rate of global warming in half by 2050, according to the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Cutting carbon alone may not be enough to prevent temperatures from rising by 2 degree Celsius. To slow down warming in the near-term and reduce suffering from the ever-increasing heatwaves, droughts, superstorms and fires, short-lived climate pollutants also must be reduced. "Decarbonisation is crucial to meeting our long-term climate goals, but it`s not enough," said Drew Shindell, Professor of Earth Science at Duke University.