Ways to address global warming

By Erika Rosenthal

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The United Nations Environment Programme and the World Meteorological Organization reported June 14 that widespread implementation of just 16 measures to reduce emissions of black carbon and ozone (principally the precursors methane and carbon dioxide) can give the world a fighting chance of limiting global temperature rise to 2 degrees or less.

These proven measures are already in use in some places around the world and would immediately benefit snow- and ice-covered regions such as the Arctic and high mountain glaciers from the Himalayas to the Andes to the Cascades.

Ambitious and immediate global action on carbon dioxide remains the backbone of any strategy to limit long-term climate change. But reducing emissions of the so-called “short-lived” climate pollutants black carbon and ground-level ozone can provide fast climate benefit.

Why? Because they last in the atmosphere only days or months, compared to a hundred years or more for carbon dioxide. And by giving the world critical time to implement carbon dioxide reductions, there is more room to adapt to inevitable changes.

Reducing smog and soot can also help avoid irreversible changes that we are speeding toward now. Think of it as a domino effect:

The accelerated melting of the Greenland ice sheet, contributes to a projected 5-foot sea-level rise by century's end. Then the vicious climate feedbacks, like the release of methane and carbon dioxide as permafrost melts, accelerates global warming even faster.

Cutting these air pollutants also provides major health benefits - these are traditional air pollutants that cause asthma and heart disease and kill millions around the world, plaguing big cities such as Los Angeles, Mumbai and Mexico City.

The good news is some cities and countries around the world are already implementing these 16 measures, improving the health of their people while helping to cool the planet. For example, successful programs are in place to reduce black carbon emissions by requiring that diesel vehicles and machines have particle filters.

The problem is, not enough people are taking these steps.

In many developing countries, traditional brick making and cook stoves are major sources of air pollution including black carbon. Improved brick kilns, piloted in Mexico, showed that particulate/pollution emissions could be reduced by 80 percent.

Efficient cook stoves can reduce black carbon emissions and reduce the number of the estimated 1.9 million premature deaths annually from indoor air pollution, principally from traditional cook stoves.

Not only is the technology available to dramatically reduce smog, but it can generate a profit. India, Indonesia and other places are capturing methane emissions from oil drilling and using it as a profitable new fuel source.

Landfills around the world are capturing methane as a fuel source. Monterrey, Mexico, is powering its metro system and city lights with landfill biogas. Similarly, municipalities from Bolivia to Blue Lake, Minn., are recovering methane from wastewater treatment plans, using it to replace natural gas to fuel plant operations. The Blue Lake plant estimates it can save more than three quarters of a million dollars in energy costs annually by capturing wastewater biogas. But more is needed.

By improving air quality - reducing soot and smog - we cannot only save lives, but also cool the planet and slow Arctic melting and sea level rise. We have the technology and examples of successful implementation at home and around the world.

We now need much wider implementation to achieve these benefits, which requires political will and financial resources. The time to act is now and the cost of inaction is incalculable.

Erika Rosenthal is an international program attorney with the public interest law firm Earthjustice (http://earthjustice.org/), a non-profit public interest law firm dedicated to protecting natural resources and defending the right of people to a healthy environment. Comments: dcoffice @earthjustice.org