The UN reports that 50% of the emissions causing global warming are from non-CO2 pollutants.
Although not a greenhouse gas, Black Carbon (soot) has emerged as a leading contributor to rising temperatures worldwide. Recent scientific studies have found black carbon – a component of soot that comes from the burning of fossil fuels and plant materials – to be a key cause of climate change. Black carbon has a strong warming effect both in the atmosphere, and when it lands on snow, ice caps and glaciers, where it absorbs the sun’s heat, reduces reflectivity and causes widespread and faster melting.
Norway’s foreign minister said action on black carbon was even more urgent than that on CO2: “Even if we turn the rising curve of greenhouse gas emissions in the coming years, the reduction will not occur quickly enough to preserve the polar and alpine environments. We must address short lived climate pollutants such as black carbon.”
Because black carbon remains in the atmosphere for only a few days – unlike other greenhouse gases, which may remain in the atmosphere for over a century – reducing black carbon emissions may be among the most effective near-term strategies for slowing global warming and avoiding some of the most imminent climate change tipping points.
Black carbon’s role in Arctic warming : Most black carbon that falls in the Arctic comes from North America, Europe and Asia. Black carbon stays in the atmosphere for just days to weeks, but it can do a lot of lasting damage. The contribution to warming by one gram of black carbon is 100 to 2,000 times more than one gram of CO2 on a 100-year timescale. A 2011 study by scientists from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies found that as much as a quarter of Arctic warming is caused by black carbon.
Black Carbon comes from diesel engines, industrial smokestacks and residential cooking and heating stoves. There is need to set stricter standards for diesel engines. Replacing primitive cooking stoves with modern versions that emit far less soot could quickly end the problem. Controlling traffic in the Himalayan region should help ease the harm done by emissions from diesel engines.
Climate and Clean Air Coalition was launched in 2012 to address pollutants that are short-lived in the atmosphere such as black carbon, methane and hydrofluorocarbons which responsible for a substantial fraction of current global warming with particularly large impacts in urban areas and sensitive regions of the world like the Arctic.
Approved initiatives include: fast action on diesel emissions including from heavy duty vehicles and engines; the upgrading of old inefficient brick kilns that cause black carbon emissions; accelerating the reduction of methane emissions from landfills; speeding up cuts in methane and other emissions from the oil and gas industry; and accelerating alternatives to hydrofluorocarbons through fast-tracking environmentally-friendly and cost effective alternatives and technologies.
Although not a greenhouse gas, Black Carbon (soot) has emerged as a leading contributor to rising temperatures worldwide. Recent scientific studies have found black carbon – a component of soot that comes from the burning of fossil fuels and plant materials – to be a key cause of climate change. Black carbon has a strong warming effect both in the atmosphere, and when it lands on snow, ice caps and glaciers, where it absorbs the sun’s heat, reduces reflectivity and causes widespread and faster melting.
Norway’s foreign minister said action on black carbon was even more urgent than that on CO2: “Even if we turn the rising curve of greenhouse gas emissions in the coming years, the reduction will not occur quickly enough to preserve the polar and alpine environments. We must address short lived climate pollutants such as black carbon.”
Because black carbon remains in the atmosphere for only a few days – unlike other greenhouse gases, which may remain in the atmosphere for over a century – reducing black carbon emissions may be among the most effective near-term strategies for slowing global warming and avoiding some of the most imminent climate change tipping points.
Black carbon’s role in Arctic warming : Most black carbon that falls in the Arctic comes from North America, Europe and Asia. Black carbon stays in the atmosphere for just days to weeks, but it can do a lot of lasting damage. The contribution to warming by one gram of black carbon is 100 to 2,000 times more than one gram of CO2 on a 100-year timescale. A 2011 study by scientists from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies found that as much as a quarter of Arctic warming is caused by black carbon.
Black Carbon comes from diesel engines, industrial smokestacks and residential cooking and heating stoves. There is need to set stricter standards for diesel engines. Replacing primitive cooking stoves with modern versions that emit far less soot could quickly end the problem. Controlling traffic in the Himalayan region should help ease the harm done by emissions from diesel engines.
Climate and Clean Air Coalition was launched in 2012 to address pollutants that are short-lived in the atmosphere such as black carbon, methane and hydrofluorocarbons which responsible for a substantial fraction of current global warming with particularly large impacts in urban areas and sensitive regions of the world like the Arctic.
Approved initiatives include: fast action on diesel emissions including from heavy duty vehicles and engines; the upgrading of old inefficient brick kilns that cause black carbon emissions; accelerating the reduction of methane emissions from landfills; speeding up cuts in methane and other emissions from the oil and gas industry; and accelerating alternatives to hydrofluorocarbons through fast-tracking environmentally-friendly and cost effective alternatives and technologies.
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