Science into Policy

The Arctic has been warming at an alarming pace, double the global warming. Since 2008 AIR scientists have been involved in a number of activities associated with the Arctic, including contribution to the work of the Arctic Council Task Force on Short-Lived Climate Forcers, Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), The International Cryosphere Climate Initiative (ICCI).

In the '“Integrated Assessment of Black Carbon and Tropospheric Ozone” of UNEP and WMO, IIASA identified 16 practical measures that would improve human health, secure crop yields and, at the same time, reduce global temperature increase in the near-term by up to 0.5 degrees. To initiate concrete action on these measures, US State Secretary Hillary Clinton launched a 'Climate and Clean Air Coalition to Reduce Short Lived Climate Pollutants' in February 2012,  complementing efforts on CO2 emissions taken by countries under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. By early 2018, the Coalition was joined by more than 50 countries and more than 60 non-state partners.

The Task Force’s main focus is to combine information produced by the various scientific working groups of the LRTAP Convention and through computer models assist in the development of legal instruments.