Measures to clean local air quality and slow down temperature increase

teaser text by Kathryn

Many countries, however, view development and other near-term and more local policy objectives as higher priorities than climate change that will occur in the long run at the global scale. Moreover, gaining additional health benefits as side-effects of climate protection strategies is frequently not seen as a strong argument (Wagner, 2012). To reveal more immediate returns, MAG used the extended GAINS model to explore practical ways of improving human welfare and simultaneously limiting temperature increase, especially in the near term. Of the more than 2,000 mitigation options considered in GAINS to improve air quality, the team identified 16 readily available measures that, together, could reduce temperature increase in the coming decades by up to 0.50C, compared to a baseline projection. At the same time, these measures, which focus on methane and black carbon, would have substantial benefits for air quality and public health worldwide, potentially reversing trends of increasing air pollution concentrations and mortality in Africa and South, West, and Central Asia (Anenberg et al., 2012).

Published in Science (Shindell et al., 2012), these findings sparked the formation of the “Climate and Clean Air Coalition” (CCAC), a voluntary partnership of governments and the private sector to promote the 16 measures that have been identified with IIASA’s GAINS model. By early 2013, 28 governments and 28 intergovernmental organizations, representing the private sector, the environmental community, and other members of civil society have joined CCAC. Markus Amann was appointed as a member of the CCAC Science Advisory Panel.

One essential component of these win-win measures involves the mitigation of methane (CH4) emissions. In 2012 MAG published a first comprehensive assessment of global CH4 emission trends, mitigation potentials, and costs. Following business-as-usual trends, it is estimated that global anthropogenic CH4 emissions will grow by 30% up to 2030. However, known technical measures could reduce emissions by almost 50%, of which about 80% could be achieved at a marginal cost of less than 20 €/ton CO2 eq. when using a social planner cost perspective. From a private investor cost perspective, the corresponding fraction is only 30% (Höglund-Isaksson, 2012).


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Last edited: 14 October 2013

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