Micronesia Proposes Reducing Factory-Made HFCs to Slow Sea Level Rise, Other Near-Term Impacts
14 May 2012 - With prospects for a comprehensive climate treaty now delayed until 2020, the Federated States of Micronesia is calling on the 197 Parties to the Montreal Protocol to strengthen climate protection under that treaty by phasing down the production and use of the super-greenhouse gases known as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). “Reducing HFCs is critical for slowing sea level rise in the short-term,” said Ambassador Asterio Takesy of the Federated States of Micronesia. "We need action now, and an agreement to phase down HFCs under the Montreal Protocol is the best strategy this year.” The Micronesian plan would prevent the equivalent of 100 billion tonnes or more of carbon dioxide emissions by 2050.
“This courageous island is helping all vulnerable nations with the world’s best near-term plan to slow climate impacts,” said Durwood Zaelke, President of the Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development. Since 2011, over 108 nations have followed Micronesia’s lead in calling for HFCs to be replaced with chemicals that have a low impact on global warming. Read more from IGSD's press release.
Major Environmental Treaty Tackles Climate Pollutant Black Carbon
10 May 2012 - Black carbon, the second most potent climate pollutant, has been targeted by the Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP), making it the first international treaty to act on the critical link between climate change and air pollution.
“Cutting black carbon is a triple win, slowing climate change, cleaning the air, and saving lives,” said Durwood Zaelke, President of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development. The US EPA recently ranked black carbon the number two climate pollutant behind carbon dioxide. Read more from IGSD's press release.
Environmental Groups Call on EPA to Eliminate Super Greenhouse Gas from Refrigerators
1 May 2012 - The Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development (IGSD) and the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) joined the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) in a petition to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to end federal approval of the use of the super greenhouse gas, HFC134a, in household and stand-alone freezers and refrigerators. HFCs are the fastest growing greenhouse gases in the US and without fast action to limit their growth, the climate forcing of HFCs could equal nearly 20% of CO2 emissions by 2050. “Approximately 20% of HFC emissions globally come from the refrigeration sector. Eliminating emissions from new residential refrigerators in the US will bring us a big step closer to eliminating all HFCs around the globe,” stated Durwood Zaelke, President of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development. Read more from IGSD's press release.
Key Allies Join Second Front in Climate War
24 April 2012 - The second front in the war against climate change just got major reinforcements in the effort to reduce black carbon (soot), methane, and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), collectively known as short-lived climate pollutants because they remain in the air to warm the Earth for only a few days to a decade and a half. Reducing them can cut the rate of global warming by half or more for the next 30 to 40 years, while saving millions of lives a year.
The European Union, Norway, Japan, Nigeria, Colombia, and the World Bank announced today that they have joined the Coalition for Climate and Clean Air to Reduce Short-lived Climate Pollutants. The Coalition concluded its inaugural meeting today in Stockholm. Read more from IGSD's press release.
Earth Day 2012: Reducing Four Key Climate Pollutants to Save the Planet
21 April 2012 - What can we do to return to a safe and stable climate that civilizations have enjoyed for the last several thousand years? Targeting four air pollutants that make up at least 40% of the current global warming can cut future warming by almost half and save more than 2 million lives annually. The four are: methane, black-carbon, noxious gases that produce ozone, and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). Fast action to cut these climate pollutants does not require that we wait until negotiations for a global climate treaty produce agreement, and both developed and developing countries are beginning to see that it is in their own domestic interest to address the problem. To support fast action what we need is energetic, bottom-up efforts from networks of local decision-makers, engineers, scientists, and NGOs that are translating scientific knowledge into actions. Read more from Durwood Zaelke and Veerabhadran Ramanathan's op-ed.
Black Carbon Ranked Number Two Climate Pollutant By US EPA
30 March 2012 - The US Environmental Protection Agency concluded in a report to Congress released today that targeted strategies to reduce black carbon “can be expected to provide climate benefits within the next several decades,” based on black carbon’s strong warming potential and its short atmospheric lifetime of days to weeks. EPA concluded that black carbon was likely to be causing more warming than any climate pollutant other than CO2, although there was remaining uncertainty about the effects of black carbon on clouds, which still need to be resolved. Read more from IGSD's press release.
Reducing Production of Super Greenhouse Gas Under Montreal Protocol Is Critical Climate Strategy
23 February 2012 – Phasing down the production and use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) under the Montreal Protocol ozone treaty is one of the most effective climate protection strategies available to the world today: it could substantially eliminate emissions of one of the fastest growing greenhouse gases globally. Low-climate-impact substitutes for HFCs are already available and could be quickly adopted. This is the conclusion of a paper published today in the prestigious journal Science by Dr. Guus Velders of the Netherlands and a team of international scientists, including Nobel Laureate Dr. Mario Molina. Read more from IGSD's press release.
Secretary Clinton and Allies Open Second Front In Fight Against Global Warming
16 February 2012 — Secretary of State Hillary Cilnton, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, and environmental ministers from five other countries announced today the formal launch of a new initiative on Climate and Clean Air to Reduce Short-lived Climate Pollutants. These include black carbon (soot), ground-level ozone and its precursor methane, and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), used as refrigerants and to make insulating foams. Collectively they contribute up to 40% or more of climate warming.
“The formal declaration by Secretary Clinton and her allies opens up a second front in the fight against global warming,” said Durwood Zaelke, President of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development. “This may be the only way to reduce climate impacts in the near term, and is a critical complement to the primary battle to reduce emissions of CO2.” Read more from IGSD's press release. The State Department briefing can be read here.
Fast action climate change mitigation measures can prevent 0.5C of global warming and help avoid the 2C danger limit
12 January 2012 — A new study in Science to be published 13 January identifies 14 fast action measures to reduce air pollutants that can deliver major benefits for climate, public health, and agriculture. The measures reduce emissions of black carbon and ground-level ozone, preventing 0.5°C of warming by 2050, half of the warming otherwise expected. The reductions in ozone are achieved by cutting its precursor methane. The 14 measures also save up to 4.7 million lives per year, while increasing crop yields up to 135 billion metric tons. Read more from IGSD's press release.
IGSD President's NPR interview: to slow climate change, cut down soot, ozone
12 January 2012 — Politically, climate change is off this year's campaign agenda. Jobs, the economy and social issues are front and center. But scientists are working as hard as ever to figure out how much the Earth is warming and what to do about it. Some now say it's time for a new strategy, one that gets faster results.
Talk to Durwood Zaelke, for example. Zaelke is a grizzled veteran of the climate wars: He was in Kyoto in 1997 when the world's nations drafted a treaty promising to curb warming, and he has watched that promise fizzle while the planet's temperature continues to rise. Read and listen here.
EPA approves alternatives for super-greenhouse HFC refrigerants
16 December 2011 — The U.S. EPA took a major step this week towards reducing the fastest growing greenhouses gas in the United States by approving three low global warming potential (GWP) hydrocarbon alternatives to hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerants. HFCs are known as super-greenhouse gases because many of these man-made refrigerants have a global warming potential hundreds to thousands of times greater than CO2. Read more from IGSD's press release.
UNEP tells Durban negotiators fast action on black carbon and other air pollutants can cut rate of global warming in half
9 December 2011 — The rate of global warming can be cut almost in half over the next 30 to 60 years with a package of 16 fast-action mitigation measures that reduce two local air pollutants, black carbon soot and ground-level ozone, according to Joseph Alcamo, UNEP’s chief scientist, who set out a fast-action mitigation plan during the climate negotiations. Fast action will deliver benefits for health and crops, as well as climate, and largely in regions making the cuts, added Achim Steiner, UNEP’s Executive Director. The Swedish environment minister noted that UNEP’s fast-action agenda
"is possibly the only way of slowing down climate change in the medium term. Ministers from Mexico, Ghana, and Canada also participated. Read more from IGSD's press release.
Fast cuts to non-CO2 climate pollutants can cut rate of warming in half
25 November 2011 — A new UNEP policy report details how fast action to reduce non-CO2 short-lived climate forcers represents a “win-win” for climate mitigation, public health, and food security, with benefits that justify action regardless of climate change policy. The report provides policy pathways to implement SLCF control measures, building upon existing institutions, policies, and regulatory frameworks. Such cuts can cut the rate of global warming in half, and in the Arctic by two-thirds over the next 30-60 years. “UNEP has shown us the tools to fight back against near-term climate change, and protect the world’s most vulnerable people and places from the worst impacts of climate change,” said IGSD President Durwood Zaelke. Read more from IGSD’s press release.
Island effort to slow sea level rise blocked at Bali Montreal Protocol meeting
25 November 2011 — At the 23rd annual meeting of the Montreal Protocol ozone treaty in Bali, Indonesia 21-25 November, a strong and vocal majority of 108 Parties supported a plea by island nations to phase down HFCs, super greenhouse gases. The proposal would ensure climate mitigation equivalent to 100 billion tonnes of CO2 by 2050, many times more than the Kyoto Protocol. But a small group of Parties led by India and China asserted that HFC can only be addressed under the climate treaty and blocked the start of formal negotiations, delaying action for at least another year. Read more from IGSD’s press release.
Weather disasters increasing from climate change, says UN report
18 November 2011 — A definitive UN science report released today confirms the link between climate change and extreme weather events, including punishing heat waves, droughts, and torrential rains and resulting floods. “These climate change impacts have become so clear and so close now that we need fast, aggressive mitigation if we hope to avoid the worst consequences,” said IGSD President Durwood Zaelke. Read more from IGSD's press release.
Innovative initiative to safely destroy OSD and POPs in Central America adopted at Basel Convention meeting
21 October 2011 — A unique partnership to safely destroy ozone-depleting substances and persistent organic pollutants was launched at the 10th meeting of the Conference of Parties to the Basel Convention in Cartagena, Columbia. ODS include fluorocarbons – “f-gases” – that destroy stratospheric ozone, increase exposure to UV radiation, and warm the climate. POPs include DDT, dioxins, and PCBs. “This initiative reduces the costs of implementation, provides public and environmental health benefits, and cuts climate emissions,” said IGSD President Zaelke. Read more from the press bulletin.
European Parliament urges fast cuts in black carbon and ground-level ozone to reduce threats from dangerous glacial dams in Himalayas
10 October 2011 — Fast cuts in black carbon are needed to reduce threats from hundreds of dangerous glacial dams in the Himalayan Hindu Kush and the devastating flash floods caused when these dams burst, according to the European Parliament. The Parliament’s Resolution of 27 September 2011 recommends fast-action to cut black carbon, as well as ground-level ozone and its precursor methane, to slow glacial melt and reduce the threat of glacial lake outburst floods. Read more from IGSD's press release.
IGSD President speaks at the XXXII OAS Roundtable on the role of short-lived climate forcers in combating natural disasters
6 October 2011 — At the OAS Roundtable on “Hemispheric Cooperation to Combat Natural Disasters”, IGSD President Zaelke said: climate change is already making disasters worse; it will make our ability to respond to disasters more difficult as more demands are made on government resources; and fast solutions can be implemented now using existing laws and technologies to cut the rate of warming in half. Video of Zaelke’s presentation is here.
UN Secretary General urges countries to leapfrog HFCs to protect climate: Notes pending proposal to phase out HFCs under Montreal Protocol
16 September 2011 — Countries and companies should leapfrog HFCs to protect the climate, according to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a statement issued today on International Ozone Day. HFCs are super greenhouse gases 2,000 times more potent than carbon dioxide at warming the climate. Read more from IGSD's press release.
European Parliament Calls for Fast Action to Cut Non- CO2 Climate Forcers: Part of Comprehensive Climate Strategy
14 September 2011 — The European Parliament is calling for fast action to reduce non-CO2 climate forcers including black carbon soot, HFCs, methane, and ground-level ozone, which together are responsible for nearly half of climate forcing. The Parliament's call for action came in a Resolution passed today by an overwhelming majority (578 to 51 with 22 abstentions). A summary of IGSD President Durwood Zaelke's testimony to the European Parliament on this topic is here. Read more from IGSD's press release.
