The Climate and Clean Air Coalition to Reduce Short-Lived Climate Pollutants aims to reduce black carbon emissions, with expected climate, health, food and energy benefits.
The Coalition is geared towards catalyzing new actions and highlighting and bolstering the work of the existing efforts, including the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, the Arctic Council, the Montreal Protocol, and the Global Methane Initiative (GMI).
16 February 2012: The US, Bangladesh, Canada, Ghana, Mexico and Sweden, with the support of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), have launched the Climate and Clean Air Coalition to Reduce Short-Lived Climate Pollutants, which aims to reduce short-lived climate pollutants, carbon, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and methane.
The Coalition was launched in Washington D.C., US, by US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who underscored that the reduction of black carbon emissions is expected to result in climate, health, food and energy benefits. The Coalition is geared towards catalyzing new actions, as well as highlighting and bolstering the work of existing efforts, including the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, the Arctic Council, the Montreal Protocol, and the Global Methane Initiative (GMI). Clinton also stressed that the work of the Coalition “will augment, not replace” global action to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
The Coalition plans to: drive the development of national action plans and the adoption of policy priorities; build capacity among developing countries; mobilize public and private funds for action; raise awareness of black carbon; foster regional and international cooperation; and improve scientific understanding of the pollutant impacts and mitigation options. The US pledged US$12 million to the Coalition, and other partners committed an additional US$15 million. UNEP will act as the Secretariat of the Coalition.
The first meeting of the Coalition will take place in Stockholm, Sweden, from 23-24 April 2012. [US State Department Fact Sheet] [Clinton’s Remarks at the Launch Event] [Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves Press Release]