Bonn, Germany// – A new guide has been launched to assist decision makers to integrate inventories of air pollutants and greenhouse gases, and to track the impact of climate change mitigation actions on air pollution, and vice versa.
The publication, titled Integrating Air Pollution and Short-Lived Climate Pollutants into Climate Change Transparency Frameworks: A Practical Guide, was released today by the Initiative for Climate Action Transparency (ICAT) and the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC).
Poor air quality is one of the most pressing environmental and health issues globally, and particularly in many developing countries. It is closely linked with climate change but those linkages are often not recognized.
Air pollutants have local effects, including serious health effects in cities. Therefore dealing with air pollution would have a local impact in the form of direct health benefits for urban residents. Additionally – with many air pollutants also being responsible for climate change and often coming from the same sources as greenhouse gases – acting on air pollution would have a global effect on mitigating climate change.
At the same time, some climate change measures could increase air pollutants; and some air pollution reduction measures could increase greenhouse gases. The new guide helps decision makers to assess the benefits and trade-offs of their activities in these areas, thereby integrating their assessments and making wider use of emissions inventories, which most countries already have in hand.
The guide sets out a practical method that planners and decision makers can use to integrate inventories of air pollutants and greenhouse gases, and then to track the impacts of climate change mitigation action on air pollutants, and vice versa.
For countries that lack capacity and formal air pollution and/or climate change planning processes, the guide can provide a basis for establishing systems to increase national capacity on these two key environmental issues.
The guide aims to provide decision makers with a clear and thorough understanding of how and why air pollutants can be integrated into their climate change measurement, reporting and verification framework.
Climate change, caused by the emission of greenhouse gases, is expected to contribute to nine million deaths every year by the end of this century, as extreme events such as storms, floods, droughts and famine become increasingly common and lead to major environmental destruction. Poor air quality is also likely to be responsible for millions of deaths every year. Already, climate change and poor air quality are having a clear impact on human health in some parts of the world.
The new guide is part of ICAT’s Toolbox, a set of state-of-the-art methodologies and tools to help countries assess the climate impacts of policies and actions.
