As President Joe Biden wraps up a whirlwind appearance at the United Nations climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, his administration unveiled a sweeping plan on Tuesday to reduce methane emissions, pledging to work with the European Union and other nations to reduce overall methane emissions worldwide by 30% by 2030.

Methane, one of the most potent greenhouse gases, contributes significantly to global warming.

"One of the most important things we can do in this decisive decade to keep 1.5 degrees in reach is reduce our methane emissions as quickly as possible," Biden told world leaders Tuesday, adding: "It's one of the most potent greenhouse gases there is, it amounts to about half half the warming we're experiencing today." 

On Tuesday, the U.S. rejoined the High Ambition Coalition, a group pledging to take action to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit). 

"Together, we’re committing to collectively reduce our methane by 30 percent by 2030," Biden said. "And I think we can probably go beyond that.”

In a one-on-one interview with Spectrum News, Gina McCarthy, the White House’s National Climate Adviser, said that addressing methane “buys us time.”

“Science tells us we have to hang on to that 1.5 degrees [Celsius] as long as possible and start taking the kind of accelerated action that's going to allow us to maintain that,” McCarthy said.  “But if if you go after the highly global warming chemicals right away, then you have an opportunity to accelerate at the pace and timing that you actually need, so it’s going to be really important.”

Climate, McCarthy said “is an equity issue” in the U.S., using the Build Back Better framework — Biden’s recently unveiled $1.75 trillion climate change and social spending measure — as an example.

“It’s targeted towards environmental justice communities that haven't been invested in, that have been burdening, far, far more than their share of pollution than anyone should ever be asked to absorb,” McCarthy said of the president’s ambitious legislative plan. “So we’re looking at this as an equity challenge here and in other countries.”

McCarthy said that the U.S. will be providing access to resources for other countries, ranging from building adaptation along coastlines to deal with challenges from rising sea levels and improving global economies “to be able to capture the kind of funding that's going to be available.”

“This is all not just about being good to one another or good partners,” she said. “It really is all about making a secure world. Because, as we know, when droughts and famines hit, you tend to have instability and migration. It is not what you want to see happen. You want every country to be safe and secure in its own economic future.” 

“It's important for us to be looking at how we become a partner, not just in terms of physical infrastructure, but raising the capacity and ability of every country to be able to have a growing economy,” she added, touting the mutual benefits for the U.S. and the international community. 

McCarthy, referencing Biden’s 30% reduction pledge, echoed the president’s confidence that the U.S. could possibly exceed that goal: “We know we have an opportunity here with already existing technology to do better.”

The pledge, she said, will require “a lot of domestic action,” including regulation of the oil and gas industry, specifically addressing stopping wells from leaking methane, a major contributor to pollution, and moving to “smarter agriculture,” including using different technology and farming practices to reduce methane emissions.

McCarthy touted the administration’s methane plan as an opportunity for job creation nationwide.

“We also are matching this with workforce development opportunities for communities like those in in Pennsylvania, that actually helped to transition and close some of those oil and gas wells that have been abandoned that are spewing methane,” McCarthy said, adding that there is “lots of opportunity” in traditionally coal mining areas like Western Kentucky and West Virginia.

When asked if the United States’ climate commitments are impacted by the fact that the Build Back Better framework — which contains roughly $550 billion in spending to combat climate change — has not yet been passed, McCarthy said that the administration is “very confident that we have technologies and we came to to this conference with a strong commitment already in hand.”

“We know we're going to quadruple the kind of investment that we were asked to make because we need to start investing in this as a worldwide effort,” McCarthy continued. "And it's going to benefit all of us, in the end, and of the work that we're doing on methane is readily available, you can spark it through regulation.”

McCarthy said that Biden is “very confident” the bill, along with its companion, a $1 trillion Senate-passed infrastructure bill, will pass, “because we need it.”

“It'll pass because it's investments in the United States of America again,” she said. “It’ll pass because it's not just fixing climate change, but it's growing jobs at home, and it's providing us an opportunity for leadership that we just passed on the prior four years, we have to be back in action.”

“So this isn't just about, you know, meeting climate commitments, which are going to be essential for us because we're already seeing the consequences in the U.S., you can't miss it anymore,” she said. “The wildfires, the droughts, the heat, the floods, the hurricanes.”

“We have to have an infrastructure that is resilient and adapts,” she continued. “That's what the infrastructure bill is. But we also have to transition to a clean energy future, because that's who's going to win the 21st century economy.”

“So make no mistake, this isn't just about acting on climate,” McCarthy concluded. “It's about acting on our own economic self-interest in moving forward with other countries.”

Watch White House National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy's interview with Spectrum News' Kevin Frey above.