While all media attention is on carbon dioxide, negotiators have not forgotten the greenhouse gases that are believed to constitute the other half of man’s contribution to global warming.
Morten Andersen
Morten Andersen
Changes in countries’ positions on reducing their emissions of carbon dioxide are widely reported on an almost daily basis. In contrast, five other substances also meant to be regulated under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) are seldom mentioned. This is a bit strange, as they together account for a manmade contribution to climate change just as big as that of carbon dioxide. And for some of these substances, a reduction in emissions would yield fast results.
“We can eliminate – not just cut – one of the six greenhouse gases this week. This can buy us more than a decade of delay (against the worst effects of climate change),” Durwood Zaelke, President of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development, tells The Los Angeles Times.
Three substances are currently in focus. These are methane which is released from coal mines, landfills and agriculture; black carbon, which is soot from incompletely burned fossil fuels and biomass; and hydrofluorocarbon chemicals (HFCs) which are widely used in refrigerators and air conditioners – especially since the so called CFC’s were banned by the Montreal Protocol due to their harmful effect on Earth’s protective ozone layer.
According to The Los Angeles Times, reducing these substances would be especially appealing to small island states that are acutely in danger of disappearing as the effect would be faster compared to that of carbon dioxide reductions. For example, black carbon stays in the atmosphere for only a few weeks, while carbon dioxide stays for many decades. Thus, action on black carbon would yield fast results.
Also, the HFC's seem an attractive target as the success of the Montreal Protocol shows it is achievable to ban this type of chemicals at an affordable cost – estimated at 2.4 billion US dollars in total, which is cheap compared to the amounts needed to reduce carbon dioxide levels.
Read more
The Los Angeles Times: Climate negotiators eye the "forgotten 50 %" of greenhouse gas pollutants
“We can eliminate – not just cut – one of the six greenhouse gases this week. This can buy us more than a decade of delay (against the worst effects of climate change),” Durwood Zaelke, President of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development, tells The Los Angeles Times.
Three substances are currently in focus. These are methane which is released from coal mines, landfills and agriculture; black carbon, which is soot from incompletely burned fossil fuels and biomass; and hydrofluorocarbon chemicals (HFCs) which are widely used in refrigerators and air conditioners – especially since the so called CFC’s were banned by the Montreal Protocol due to their harmful effect on Earth’s protective ozone layer.
According to The Los Angeles Times, reducing these substances would be especially appealing to small island states that are acutely in danger of disappearing as the effect would be faster compared to that of carbon dioxide reductions. For example, black carbon stays in the atmosphere for only a few weeks, while carbon dioxide stays for many decades. Thus, action on black carbon would yield fast results.
Also, the HFC's seem an attractive target as the success of the Montreal Protocol shows it is achievable to ban this type of chemicals at an affordable cost – estimated at 2.4 billion US dollars in total, which is cheap compared to the amounts needed to reduce carbon dioxide levels.
Read more
The Los Angeles Times: Climate negotiators eye the "forgotten 50 %" of greenhouse gas pollutants
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