I want to return to a theme expressed here a number of times: Carbon dioxide is not the only greenhouse gas with which we need to concern ourselves.
The Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development (IGSD) reiterated this important message yesterday in this press release announcing their “Fast-Action Climate Mitigation Campaign.” What’s the pitch? “The benefit of addressing the non-CO2 side of climate change is not insignificant – taking action now may very well save the world from the most damaging and perhaps irreversible effects of climate change that may be only decades away. This is because cutting non-CO2 climate forcers will produce big climate benefits in a much shorter period of time.”
Some formidable researchers and advocates wrote a paper that appeared in the prestigious “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences” (PNAS) last October. The paper is perfectly accessible by the non-scientist and talks about some key policy initiatives we could and should be taking. “Policymakers can amend the Montreal Protocol to phase down the production and consumption of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) with high global warming potential. Other fast-action strategies can reduce emissions of black carbon particles and precursor gases that lead to ozone formation in the lower atmosphere, and increase biosequestration, including through biochar.”
One of the wholly beneficial side effects of the Montreal Protocol’s push to reduce ozone-depleting substances (ODS) was to also massively reduce the radiative forcing from these potent greenhouse gases. There’s much more that can be done in this regard.
I’ve also written about the pernicious impact of black carbon, here and here for instance. We can radically reduce black carbon deposition by, among other things, providing more efficient and less polluting ways of cooking. One of the critical co-benefits here is helping to curb the fourth worst cause of mortality in the developing world: lung and heart disease from cooking smoke.
Ground-level ozone, or tropospheric (as opposed to stratospheric) ozone, is formed by the combination of oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOC) in the presence of heat and sunlight. It has powerful negative impacts on both human health and agriculture. It is also a potent greenhouse gas.
The PNAS paper and the IGSD campaign offer several “fast-track” ways to diminish these GHGs. They also strongly support the use of biochar, because it’s a carbon-negative system, as a way to quickly start to mitigate climate impacts.
There are critical measures outlined here that policymakers need to fully embrace. It’s really not all about the carbon dioxide and we need to keep that clearly in mind.
