WASHINGTON, November
3, 2013- Fast action to cut common pollutants
like soot - also known as black carbon -
and methane will not only slow global warming,
but save millions of lives.
Reductions of these
so-called short-lived climate pollutants
(SLCPs) would slow rapid melting in the
Arctic and in mountain regions with glaciers,
like the Himalayas. It would also bring
multiple health, crop and ecosystem benefits,
and decrease risks to development from flooding
and water shortages says a new scientific
study released today.
“The health of people
around the world will improve greatly if
we reduce emissions of black carbon and
methane. Limiting these emissions also will
be an important contributor to the fight
against climate change," said Jim Yong
Kim, President of the World Bank Group.“The
damage from indoor cooking smoke alone is
horrendous - every year, 4 million people
die from exposure to the smoke. With cleaner
air, cities will become more productive,
food production will increase and children
will be healthier.”
On Thin Ice: How Cutting
Pollution can Slow Warming and Save Livesis
about how climate change is affecting the
cryosphere - those snow-capped mountain
ranges, brilliant glaciers and vast permafrost
regions on which all of us depend.
It warns that current
warming in the cryosphere could have dire
human consequences from resulting sea level
rise, increased water stress and more extreme
weather. For example, the release of large
CO2 and methane stores as a result of melting
permafrost could contribute up to 30% more
carbon to the atmosphere by the end of the
century.
“The cryosphere is changing
fast as a result of climate change, it is
changing today, and those changes bring
increased risk to ecosystems and human societies,”
says Pam Pearson, Director of the International
Cryosphere Climate Initiative, who produced
the report with the World Bank. “If warming
continues unabated, the risks from continuing
sea level rise, flooding and water resource
disruption rise dramatically. This report
makes clear that slowing cryosphere warming
is an issue of global concern. Also, that
action to cut SLCPs must take place in concert
with ambitious efforts to cut long-lived
greenhouse gases."
The report also lays
out immediate measures we can take to slow
the ice melt including reducing the black
carbon emissions from diesel-fueled vehicles
and solid fuel cooking fires that lowers
the reflectivity of snow and ice, leading
to greater melting.
Such actions would also
provide important health, agriculture and
other development benefits. According to
the report, if more clean cook-stoves -
stoves that use less or cleaner fuel - would
be used it could save one million lives.
In addition, a 50-percent drop in open field
and forest burning could result in 190,000
fewer deaths every year, many of them in
Europe and Central Asia.
Reductions in emissions
from diesel transport and equipment, meanwhile,
could result in more than 16 million tons
of additional yield in crops such as rice,
soy and wheat, especially in Southeast Asia;
and also avert 340,000 premature deaths.
Emissions of methane,
as well as nitrogen oxide from diesel use,
causes higher levels of ozone which results
in lower growth of food crops, and thus
a decrease in crop yields.
"This report is
an important contribution to the World Bank's
work on development and climate,” said Rachel
Kyte, World Bank Vice President for Sustainable
Development. “It clearly identifies the
risks that black carbon and methane pose
to the poorest and most vulnerable, as well
as the climate benefits of early, scalable
action irrespective of global agreements.
Critically, it also provides solutions for
clean growth, and opportunities to help
meet World Bank Group goals of ending extreme
poverty by 2030 and boosting shared prosperity.”
The World Bank is taking
steps to ensure more of its projects and
activities reduce short-lived climate pollutants.
A recent analysis for the G8 reveals that
from 2007 to 2012, 7.7 percent of World
Bank commitments in energy, transport, roads,
agriculture, forestry, and urban waste and
wastewater - approximately US$ 18 billion
-have an impact on the amount of climate
pollutants which are released into the atmosphere.
However, reducing emissions will not be
easy as very real barriers to implementation
exist around cost, behavior and technology.
“Our aim is to work
with countries to transform investments
that have an impact on pollutants like black
carbon into investments that reduce emissions
where ever possible,”said Kyte.
For copies of the “On
Thin Ice” report go to: www.worldbank.org/climatechange
This report builds on
methods used in the UNEP/WMO Integrated
Assessment of Black Carbon and Tropospheric
Ozone (2011) which is supported by the UNEP
hosted Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC)
to Reduce Short-lived Climate Pollutants;
both the World Bank and ICCI are partners
in the CCAC.
