Short-lived climate pollutants
Short-lived climate pollutants include black carbon, tropospheric ozone, methane, and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). Because these pollutants have atmospheric lifetimes of only days to a decade and a half, they are referred to as short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs), compared to CO2 which can persist in the atmosphere for millenia. Reducing SLCPs is critical for slowing the rate of climate change over the next several decades and for protecting the people and regions most vulnerable to near-term climate impacts. Cutting SLCPs can reduce the current rate of global warming by almost half, the rate of warming in the Arctic by two-thirds, and the Hindu Kush-Kimalaya region by half for the next 30 or more years while avoiding up to 4.7 million premature deaths each year from outdoor air pollution and up to 1.6 million a year from indoor pollution.
IGSD documents
- The Need for Speed: Reducing Short-Lived Climate Forcers & Perfecting Deliberate Carbon Removal Strategies to Complement CO2Reductions (English, Chinese, French)
- Primer on Short-Lived Climate Pollutants (October 2012)
- Why phase down HFCs under the Montreal Protocol? (Nov 2011)
- CEDHA & IGSD: Non-CO2 Short-Lived Climate Pollutants and the Deterioration of Human Rights
Additional resources
- Statements of support for reducing SLCPs from key international, regional, and bilateral policy meetings
- IASS Potsdam Workshop Summary
- Scientific Synthesis Report of Calera Technology
- PNAS: The Copenhagen Accord for limiting global warming: Criteria, constraints, and available avenues (V. Ramanathan and Y. Xu, May 2010)
- U.S. American Power Act, Subtitle C: Achieving Fast Mitigation
- MEA Bulletin guest article: Fast and Furious: Early Agreement on Fair and Equitable Financing is Key to Post-2012 Treaty by Romina Picolotti, Argentina’s Minister of Environment
- “How to Tackle Greenhouse Gases” a letter from IGSD President to The Washington Post
- Congressional testimony of FSM Ambassador Masao Nakayama
- IASS Potsdam Workshop Summary
- Scientific Synthesis Report of Calera Technology
- PNAS: The Copenhagen Accord for limiting global warming: Criteria, constraints, and available avenues (V. Ramanathan and Y. Xu, May 2010)
- European Parlaiment Urges Fast Cuts in Black Carbon and Ground-level Ozone to Reduce Threats from Dangerous Glacial Dams in Himalayas (Sept 2011)
- UNEP and WMO's "Integrated Assessment of Black Carbon and Tropospheric Ozone: Summary for Decision Makers" (Feb 2011)
- Molina, M., Zaelke, D., Sarma, K. M., Andersen, S. O., Ramanathan, V., and Kaniaru, D., Reducing abrupt climate change risk using the Montreal Protocol and other regulatory actions to complement cuts in CO2 emissions, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2009)
- Shindell, D. et al., Simultaneously Mitigating Near-Term Climate Change and Improving Human Health and Food Security, Science (2012)
- Velders G. et al., Preserving the Climate Benefits of the Montreal Protocol by Limiting HFCs, Science (2012)
- Victor D., Kennel C., and Ramanathan V., The Climate Threat We Can Beat: What It Is and How to Deal With It, Foreign Affairs (2012)
- Anenberg S. et al., Global Air Quality and Health Co-Benefits of Mitigating Near-Term Climate Change through Methane and Black Carbon Emission Controls, Environmental Health Perspectives (2012)
- UNEP, The Montreal Protocol and The Green Economy (2012)
- UNEP, Near-term Climate Protection and Clean Air Benefits: Actions for Controlling Short-Lived Climate Forcers (November 2011)
- UNEP, HFCs: A Critical Link in Protecting Climate and the Ozone Layer (November 2011)
- UNEP and World Meteorological Organziation, Integrated Assessment of Black Carbon and Tropospheric Ozone (2011)
- UNEP and World Meteorological Organization, Integrated Assessment of Black Carbon and Tropospheric Ozone: Summary for Decision Makers (2011)
- National Research Council of the National Academies, Climate Stabilization Targets: Emissions, Concentrations, and Impacts over Decades to Millennia (2011)
- U.S. EPA, Report to Congress on Black Carbon (2012)
- U.S. EPA, Reducing Black Carbon Emissions in South Asia: Low Cost Opportunities (2012)
- Wallack, J. S., & Ramanathan, V., The Other Climate Changers: Why Black Carbon and Ozone Also Matter, Foreign Affairs (2009)
- Clare, D., Pistone, K., and Ramanathan, V., Getting Rid of Black Carbon: A Neglected but Effective Near-Term Climate Mitigation Avenue, Georgetown J. Int’l Affairs (2010)
- Ramanathan, V., & Xu, Y., The Copenhagen Accord for limiting global warming: Criteria, constraints, and available avenues, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2010)
- Lenton, T., The potential for land-based biological CO2 removal to lower future atmospheric CO2 concentrations, Carbon Management (2010)
- Velders G. et al., The large contribution of projects HFC emissions to future climate forcing, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2009)
- Velders G. et al., The importance of the Montreal Protocol in protecting climate, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2007)