CLIMATE AND CLEAN AIR CONFERENCE 2024

Why in the News?

The Climate and Clean Air Coalition's (CCAC) annual meeting, the Climate and Clean Air Conference, recently took place in Nairobi, Kenya.

More on the news

• The conference was held on the margins of the Sixth Session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-6).
• Objectives of the conference: Highlighting ways to further scale up implementation of the Global Methane Pledge, Clean Air Flagship and Kigali Amendment.

Key outcomes of the CCAC Conference 2024

• Launch of Clean Air Flagship: To save lives and slow climate change by boosting cooperation and reducing pollutant emissions.
  • The programme is aimed at supporting governments to achieve cleaner air as quickly as possible, consistent with improved WHO air quality interim targets.
• ‘Used Heavy Duty Vehicles (HDVs) and the Environment’ Report: Launched by the UNEP & the CCAC, outlines a roadmap for reducing sector’s emissions through standardizing, monitoring, and greening strategies.
• CCAC Technology and Economic Assessment Panel: To help close the gap between technologies and finance by focusing on how to overcome barriers to scale up climate finance.
• Launched a major cost of inaction study that supports economic case to act on short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) to limit hazardous global warming and climate disasters.

What are short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs)?

• They are powerful climate forcers that remain in the atmosphere for a much shorter period of time than carbon dioxide, yet their potential to warm the atmosphere can be many times greater.

Impact of SLCPs

• Global warming: SLCPs are the second largest contributor to human-caused climate warming after carbon dioxide, contributing up to 45% of global warming to date.
• On Human Health: 
  • Exposure to ground-level ozone can cause inflammation of the lungs, asthma and allergies. 
  • Black carbon is a primary contributor to both indoor and outdoor air pollution.
• On weather patterns: Tropospheric ozone influences cloud formation, thereby changing regional weather and, in particular, rainfall patterns.
• Accelerated ice melt: When deposited on ice or snowfields, black carbon reduces the albedo of these surfaces and leads to accelerated melting rates and atmospheric warming.
• On Agriculture: Tropospheric ozone harms vegetation by damaging leaves, reducing photosynthesis, impairing plant reproduction and growth, reducing plants’ uptake of carbon dioxide (CO₂) and decreasing crop yields.

Sector-wise solutions to reduce SLCPs

• Agriculture
  • Promote farm-scale anaerobic digestion to control methane emissions from livestock
  • Eliminate open burning in agriculture through regulation and farmer education to reduce black carbon.

• Fossil fuels
  • Carry out pre-mining de-gasification and recovery and oxidation of methane from ventilation air from coal mines.
  • Improve flaring efficiency in oil and gas production to reduce black Carbon.
• Waste
  • Separate and treat biodegradable municipal waste, and turn it into compost or bioenergy to mitigate methane.
  • Improve and extend municipal waste collection services and ban open burning of municipal waste to reduce black carbon.
• Household energy: Replace traditional cooking with clean-burning modern fuel and cookstove technology, such as solar, biogas, electricity  to reduce black carbon.
• Transport: Adopt ultra-low sulphur diesel and minimum Euro 6/VI emission standards to mitigate black carbon.