Reducing Short Lived Climate Pollutants - Quick Wins for Climate and Development

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On 15 June UNEP’s Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) held a session at the European Development Days in Brussels, entitled “Quick Wins for Climate and Development – contributing to SDG attainment by reducing short lived climate pollutants”.

The experts panel consisted of Jacob Werksman, Principal Adviser at the European Commission DG Climate Action, Pacifica Achieng, Director of Climate Change at the State Department of Environment of Kenya, Michel Rentenaar, Climate Envoy of the Netherlands, Bahijjahtu Abubakar , Federal Ministry of Environment of Kenya, and Sunday Leonard, Science Officer at the UNEP-CCAC Secretariat.

The panel stressed that the goal agreed upon at the Paris Climate Conference in 2015 to limit global warming to 2°C between now and 2100 would be unattainable without mitigating short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs).

SLCPs are powerful air pollutants which produce multiple adverse effects on human health, agricultural crops yield and vegetation, contribute to near-term climate change, slow economic growth, and retard sustainable development.

Not only does acting on SLCPs in key sectors have the potential to reduce projected warming by 0.6°C by 2050, it could also avoid millions of premature deaths from air pollution annually, avoid millions of tonnes of annual crop losses, and increase energy efficiency, in addition to a host of other benefits.

According to Sunday Leonard, we already have the capacity to act now. Mitigating SLCPs does not require new technology; the necessary tools and knowledge are already there. In order to be effective though, mainstreaming SLCPs in climate action and development is a necessity.

There are already several low-hanging fruits which could lead to quick wins in addressing climate change in Kenya alone, said Pacifica Achieng. Opening up the market, creating favourable taxation rates and developing stove production enterprises as well as strategies for ethanol distribution centres are just a few examples.

The importance of mainstreaming SLCPs was reiterated by Bahijiahtu Abubakar who also mentioned that climate change mitigation has a human face. Replacing old equipment by solar lanterns and efficient cooking stoves is key in improving women’s health and in reducing black carbon emissions.

After the Paris Agreement the development sector has realized that development aid is wasted if it doesn’t take into account the impact of climate change. Emissions and SLCPs kill, but according to Michel Rentenaar there now is a positive momentum to do something about it.

For more information, including photos and audio recording of the session, see here.