28 June 2010: The first meeting of the Ad Hoc Expert Group on Black Carbon under the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution of the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) was held in Brussels, Belgium, on 17-18 June 2010.

During the meeting, national experts and policymakers from Europe, North and South America and Asia reviewed the current state of black carbon research, discussed knowledge gaps, and explored future strategies for reducing the pollutant’s emissions. By the end of 2010, the Group, chaired by Norway and the US, is expected to provide options for potential revisions to the 1999 Gothenburg Protocol, enabling parties to the Convention to mitigate black carbon as part of a broader particulate matter strategy for health purposes and to achieve climate co-benefits.

The Group was created in 2009 and tasked to identify options for potential revisions to the Convention’s 1999 Gothenburg Protocol that would enable parties to mitigate black carbon as a component of particulate matter. Black carbon is an air pollutant formed through the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels, biofuel and biomass, which poses significant risks to human health and the environment. [UNECE Press Release] [Expert Group Website]