Context

Climate and Clean Air Coalition leaders agreed to reduce short-lived climate pollutants by 2030.

About

What is Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC)?

• The Climate and Clean Air Coalition is a voluntary partnership of governments, intergovernmental organizations, businesses, scientific institutions and civil society organizations committed to improving air quality and protecting the climate through actions to reduce short-lived climate pollutants.
• Its global network currently includes over 120 state and non-state partners, and hundreds of local actors carrying out activities across economic sectors.

What are short-lived climate pollutants?

• Short-lived climate pollutants are those pollutants which are short lived in atmosphere.
• They are also known as Super Pollutants.
• Methane, black carbon and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) are some examples of short lived pollutants.
• They are many times more powerful than carbon dioxide at warming the planet.
• But because they are short-lived in the atmosphere, preventing emissions can rapidly reduce the rate of warming.

What is the Approach of CCAC to reduce short-lived climate pollutants?

The Coalition's partners and initiative participants work in cooperation with key short-lived climate pollutant emitters and other stakeholders from around the world to encourage, enable and catalyse action to reduce emissions. To achieve real and ambitious reductions, the Coalition focuses on four key strategies:

• Enable transformative actionby providing knowledge, resources, and technical and institutional capacity to act and supporting the sharing of information, experience, and expertise.
• Mobilize supportfor action to put short-lived climate pollutants on the policy map through advocacy at all levels of government and in the private sector and civil society.
• Increase the availability of and access to financial resourcesto support the successful implementation of scalable, transformational action.
• Enhance scientific knowledgeto help decision-makers scale up action and promote the multiple benefits of action on short-lived climate pollutants.

Funding of CCAC:

• The Coalition’s activities are financed through a multi-donor The Climate and Clean Air Trust Fund, established in 2012, which is administered through UN Environment. While governments are the core of the Coalition’s funding, contributions from the private sector and global community are encouraged.

Goal of CCAC:

• The Coalition’s goal is to reduce short-lived climate pollutants beyond the recommendations made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its special report Global Warming of 1.5°C.

What are the recommendations made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)?

• According to the report, there need to be considerable cuts in emissions of black carbon (35 per cent by 2030), methane (37 per cent by 2030) and HFCs (70 per cent to 80 per cent by 2050) if the world is to keep the global warming below 1.5?C.

Benefits of increasing action on short-lived climate pollutants:

• It can avoid an estimated 2.4 million premature deaths from outdoor air pollution annually by 2030/.
• It can prevent as much as 52 million tonnes of crop losses per year, and slow the increase in global warming by as much as 0.6°C by 2050.
• It can also prevent the climate tipping points that can exacerbate long-term climate impacts and make adapting to climate change harder, especially for the poor and most vulnerable.

India and CCAC:

• India formally joined the Climate & Clean Air Coalition (CCAC), becoming the 65th country to join the partnership.
• India plans to work with Climate Clean and Coalition countries on best practices and experiences for the effective implementation of India’s National Clean Air Programme (NCAP).
  
  

  National Clean Air Programme (NCAP): Launched in January 2019, the NCAP is a comprehensive strategy with actions to prevent, control and reduce air pollution and improve air quality monitoring across the country. It aims to reduce fine particulate (PM5) and particulate (PM10) air pollution by 20 per cent–30 per cent by 2024. India has identified 102 non-attainment cities, with city-specific action plans being formulated.