For increased knowledge about short-lived climate pollutants
Together with a number of other countries and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Sweden has initiated a global coalition to reduce emissions of short-lived climate pollutants. On June 3 2012, Lena Ek and US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton invited researchers, students and business representatives to a discussion of how the initiative can be communicated and how companies and the general public in Sweden can be involved in the work.
Short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) is a collective term for black carbon particles, ground-level ozone, short-lived hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and methane. These substances have a short lifetime in the athmosphere, days to about a decade, relative to for example Carbon dioxide. Diesel-driven vehicles, working machinery and ships as well as wood burning and decomposing organic waste at landfills produce emissions of these pollutants.
Reduced emissions of SLCPs slows down climate change
Reduced emissions of SLCPs will have positive effects on air quality, health and food security within as little as 10 to 20 years. By reducing emissions of SLCPs, ongoing climate change can be slowed. Work to reduce emissions of SLCPs complements the necessary work to reduce emissions of more long-lived greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. Members of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC), which was created on the initiative of Sweden and a number of other countries, work to reduce emissions of SLCPs by, among other things, reducing their own emissions.
Involving young researchers and communicators
At the meeting young scientists and communicators contributed with ideas about how to communicate SLCPs.
Sweden and the United States have particular responsibility in the Coalition to increase awareness about SLCPs. On June 3, a seminar was arranged to explain the term and simultaneously involve and obtain advice from young researchers and students on how to increase awareness of SLCPs.
The business sector is an important partner
The Coalition sees the private sector as an important party in the work to reduce emissions of SLCPs and wants to involve the business sector in a discussion of what can be done to develop cooperation on SLCPs. Therefore, business representatives was invited to the meeting on June 3 to contribute knowledge on how companies can participate in the work of the Coalition.
The Coalition's work on SLCPs
Sweden, the United States, Mexico, Canada, Ghana, Bangladesh and the UNEP have jointly launched a global coalition aimed at reducing climate emissions, the Climate and Clean Air Coalition to Reduce Short-Lived Climate Pollutants (CCAC SLCP). The global initiative was launched at a ministerial meeting in Washington D.C. in February 2012. The first official meeting of the Coalition took place in Stockholm in April. Colombia, Japan, Nigeria, Norway, all the G8 countries, the European Commission and the World Bank have also joined the Coalition. They are therefore committed to reducing their own emissions of SLCPs. The work of the Coalition is a complement to the work to reduce emissions of long-lived greenhouse gases that is conducted within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
