In March, a corroded pipe in Turkmenistan's Lebap province was quietly repaired. The act was unremarkable in itself, yet it stopped a methane super-emitter leak that had been heating the planet more than a million SUVs running simultaneously. It was also, according to the United Nations, part of something historically unusual: a secretive, authoritarian government beginning to respond to outside pressure on climate. Methane — the main component of natural gas — traps heat roughly 80 times more effectively than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period and is responsible for around a quarter of the global heating measured today.

Because it breaks down in the atmosphere far faster than CO₂, sealing a leak can produce measurable climate benefits within years rather than decades. Some researchers have described methane abatement as the climate system's "emergency brake." Turkmenistan, whose ageing Soviet-era oil and gas infrastructure has long been a major source of these emissions, has now repaired eight such sites, fixing corroded pipes, failing flares and faulty wells. The UN's Methane Alert and Response System (MARS) sent the country 192 satellite-detected alerts over the past year; Turkmenistan engaged with roughly 20% of them, providing ground-level information and remediation plans.

That figure may seem modest, but it stands in stark contrast to the response — or absence of one — from wealthier nations. The United States received 138 alerts, the second-highest total in the world, yet fixed no leaks and replied to none. Iran, Russia and China equally ignored every alert they received. The worst single leak recorded by MARS in this period was not in Central Asia at all, but in Mexico's offshore oil and gas sector: 37 tonnes of methane escaping every hour, an output equivalent to more than seven million SUVs.

Mexico did respond to all 23 of its alerts, though no repair had been completed at the time of reporting.