Fast Action Climate Mitigation Measures Can Help Avoid 2°C Danger Limit

A new study in Science led by Drew Shindell of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, identifies 14 fast action measures to reduce emissions of black carbon, methane gas, and ground-level ozone. These measures have the potential to deliver major benefits for climate, public health, and agriculture, and would prevent 0.5°C of warming by 2050—half of the warming otherwise expected.

By implementing the climate mitigation measures, nations worldwide could prevent nearly five million premature deaths from air pollution a year, increase crop yields up to 135 billion metric tons, and reduce the rate of Arctic warming by two-thirds. The study concluded that both established and developing nations would gain benefits from reducing methane gas and black carbon, with major improvements in reducing pollution levels in China and India and reducing the overall warming effects in Africa and the Arctic.

“Because black carbon and ozone stay in the atmosphere only for a few hours to a few years, reducing these pollutants can immediately slow down climate change and some of its most harmful impacts while we continue to develop methods to reduce carbon dioxide,” says Durwood Zaelke, president of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development. The study analyzed over 400 control measures and selected 14 that would target methane seepage from coal, oil, and gas operations, emissions from landfills, and livestock and wastewater operations. All control measures would use proven technologies that can be implemented cost-effectively. Black-carbon reduction measures would focus on diesel vehicle emissions and wood-burning stoves in developing nations. Achim Steiner, Executive Director for the United Nations Environment Program said, "The scientific case for fast action on these so-called 'short-lived climate forcers' has been steadily built over more than a decade, and this study provides further focused and compelling analysis of the likely benefits at the national and regional level."


For additional information see: NASA Study , Washington Post , AFP , Nature , Associated Press