26 April 2012
Climate and Clean Air Coalition Welcomes New Partners
story highlights

The Climate and Clean Air Coalition, which aims to take fast action to reduce short lived climate pollutants that have a direct impact on climate change, welcomed Colombia, Japan, Nigeria, Norway, the European Commission and the World Bank as new partners.

They join the founding members of the Coalition, namely Bangladesh, Canada, Ghana, Mexico, Sweden, the US and UNEP.

24 April 2012: The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has announced that the first meeting of the working group and the High Level Assembly of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition welcomed new parties to the Coalition, agreed on five initiatives for rapid implementation, and established a Trust Fund managed by the UNEP-hosted Secretariat.

The meeting convened in Stockholm, Sweden, from 23-24 April 2012, and welcomed Colombia, Japan, Nigeria, Norway, the European Commission and the World Bank as new partners. The Coalition aims to take fast action to reduce short lived climate pollutants that have a direct impact on climate change.

The new partners join the Coalition’s founding members, namely Bangladesh, Canada, Ghana, Mexico, Sweden, the US and UNEP.

According to UNEP, the Coalition agreed on five transformation initiatives aimed at accelerating action on health, crop and climate-damaging pollutants. Approved initiatives include: fast action on diesel emissions including from heavy duty vehicles and engines; the upgrading of old inefficient brick kilns that cause black carbon emissions; accelerating the reduction of methane emissions from landfills; speeding up cuts in methane and other emissions from the oil and gas industry; and accelerating alternatives to hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), through fast-tracking environmentally-friendly and cost effective alternatives and technologies. The Coalition also agreed to further develop a Ghanaian proposal on agricultural and forest open burning, and another from Bangladesh on cookstoves.

Further, a new Trust Fund, managed by the UNEP-hosted secretariat, was agreed, with initial financing pledges for the Coalition reaching approximately $16.7 million to date; and ministers requested that asked three scientists involved in short lived climate pollutant work advise them on the formation of a dedicated Science Advisory Panel. The scientists are Drew Shindell of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Mario Molina, 1995 Nobel Prize co-winner, and Veerabhadran Ramanathan, chair of the UNEP Atmospheric Brown Cloud project. [UNEP Press Release] [Climate and Clean Air Coalition Website]

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