The Fast-Action Climate Mitigation Campaign
With abrupt climate change approaching faster than predicted according to scientists, fast-action mitigation strategies are essential in order to avoid passing the tipping points. The Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development has embarked on a “fast-action” climate mitigation campaign to promote non-CO2 strategies that will result in significant emissions reductions in the near-term, to complement cuts in CO2 which are essential for the long-term. These strategies include:
- Reducing emissions of short-term climate forcers, such as black carbon, methane, and tropospheric ozone
- Maximizing the potential of the Montreal Protocol ozone treaty to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, with a current focus on:
- Phasing down potent hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) that can have up to 11,000 times the warming potential of CO2
- Recovering and destroying ozone-depleting substances (ODSs) in “banks” of existing equipment, foams, and stockpiles
- Expanding bio-sequestration through biochar, a charcoal made from agricultural waste that has the potential to sequester carbon in soil for hundreds to thousands of years while also improving agricultural productivity
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IGSD President Co-Authors New Paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
"Cutting Non-CO2 Pollutants Can Delay Abrupt Climate Change, Solve “Fast Half” of Climate Problem"
Washington, D.C., October 12, 2009 – Reducing non-CO2 climate change agents such as black carbon soot, tropospheric ozone, and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), as well as expanding bio-sequestration through biochar production, can forestall fast approaching abrupt climate changes, according to Nobel Laureate Dr. Mario Molina and co-authors in a paper published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
The paper’s authors said that pursuing these solutions could change the character of the United Nations climate change conference taking place this December in Copenhagen.
“Cutting HFCs, black carbon, tropospheric ozone, and methane can buy us about 40 years before we approach the dangerous threshold of 2˚C warming,” said co-author Professor Veerabhadran Ramanathan, a Distinguished Professor of Climate and Atmospheric Sciences at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego.
“By targeting these short-term climate forcers, we can make a down payment on climate and provide momentum going into the December negotiations in Copenhagen,” said co-author Durwood Zaelke, President of the Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development. “The Obama Administration and other key governments need to take up the fast-action climate agenda before it is too late.”
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