A top energy official at the State Department on Tuesday said the Biden administration remains focused on supporting the rapid phase-out of coal-fired power generation globally, and views natural gas exports as a key in the transition to cleaner energy sources.

Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources Geoffrey Pyatt, a Biden appointee, told reporters during a press call that a top priority in the administration’s climate agenda is curbing the use of coal. The U.S. last week joined leaders from the world’s richest nations in vowing to halt the use of electricity derived from coal by 2035.

Pyatt said LNG can play a role in the global energy transition if it’s coupled with investments aimed at monitoring and abating methane and carbon capture sequestration — a process that needs to be scaled up dramatically to keep global temperatures from exceeding dangerous thresholds.

“Around the world, the single most important short-term climate priority is the abatement of methane, which has a particularly damaging impact on global warming,” said Pyatt. “And then also the curtailment of coal usage, as fast as possible, the cessation of all new coal power construction, and then the early phase-out of coal power.”