Australia today announced it will join the Climate and Clean Air Coalition - an alliance of over two dozen nations, intergovernmental organisations and the private sector - committed to rapid action to reduce short-lived but highly potent pollution caused by methane, black carbon (soot), tropospheric ozone (smog) and hydrofluorocarbons.
Climate Change Minister Greg Combet said the goal is to support action that will reduce these pollutants.
“Apart from trapping heat in the atmosphere, these pollutants can also be extremely damaging to human health, air quality, crop yields and ecosystems,” he said.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton welcomed Australia’s announcement: “We welcome Australia as the Climate and Clean Air Coalition’s newest partner in the fight against short-lived climate pollutants," she said.
"Our Coalition has seen tremendous progress since its launch earlier this year, and I have no doubt our collective efforts against these pollutants will be greatly strengthened in the Asia-Pacific and around the world with Australian leadership and expertise. We look forward to continued progress through the Coalition to improve our climate, health, and environment.”
Parliamentary secretary for Climate Change, Mark Dreyfus, is in New York attending the Major Economies Forum.
He said the science suggests that acting quickly to reduce short-lived climate pollutants, which are more potent than carbon dioxide, has the potential to slow down warming by 2050.
"It would also increase the chance of staying within a global temperature rise of below 2 degrees Celsius," he said.
The Climate and Clean Air Coalition is chaired by the United States and Nigeria and includes Germany, Japan, the UK, France, Italy, Bangladesh, Colombia, Ghana, Mexico, Canada, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Israel, Jordan, the European Commission, the UN Environment Programme, and the World Bank.
Working in partnership with inter-governmental organisations and civil society, this work complements action by individual countries to reduce carbon pollution, and collective global efforts under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The Coalition will focus on:
fast action on diesel emissions including from heavy duty vehicles and engines;
upgrading brick kilns which are a significant source of black carbon emissions;
accelerating the reduction of methane emissions from landfills;
speeding up cuts in methane and other emissions from the oil and gas industry; and
accelerating the take up of alternatives to hydrofluorocarbons.