Black Soot Offers Climate-Talks Opportunity, UN Official Says
Negotiators at climate change talks can make progress in setting limits on air pollutants by looking beyond carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, the United Nations top environment official said.
Black soot, methane and other non-CO2 gases contribute almost half of global warming substances in the atmosphere and reducing output of many of them can be solved without legally binding agreements, Achim Steiner, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme, said in an interview.
“We’re looking for policy makers to give support to accelerated action through bilateral and private sector partnerships,” he said today in Berlin. “This is not an alternative to limiting CO2.”
Negotiations aimed at limiting CO2 emissions set to resume in November in Cancun, Mexico, have been bogged down by conflicts over money for poor countries to adjust to climate change and greenhouse gas limits for countries such as China and India. There may be “no hope” for reaching an agreement this year in the Mexican coastal resort if disagreements persist, U.S. lead negotiator Jonathan Pershing said last month.
Current pledges by all nations remain insufficient to limit the average increase in global temperature to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), which was also agreed to in Copenhagen last year. The UN estimates that commitments amount to a cut of 12 percent to 19 percent from 1990 levels, short of the 25 to 40 percent needed.
Black soot is formed by partial combustion of fossil fuels, burning forests and biofuels. It remains in the atmosphere for several days or weeks, less than carbon dioxide, which remains in the atmosphere for about a century.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jeremy van Loon in Berlin at jvanloon@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net
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