Air Pollution and Climate Change: Two Sides of the Same Coin

Meanwhile, we should continue cutting down on the release of long-lived greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide.

 “When addressing air pollution, we also address a critical and easy-to-implement solution to climate change. Short-lived climate pollutants are negative in all senses, and we have proven technologies and policies to economically and immediately reduce air pollution,” says UN Environment climate change specialist Niklas Hagelberg.

A recent concern is trichlorofluoromethane, or CFC-11, which is to be phased out worldwide under the Montreal Protocol, the global agreement to protect the ozone layer. The industrial gas, used illegally, for example, in insulation material, also contributes to global warming.

Aerosols, the atmospheric pollutant with an effect on the climate

The October 2018 report by the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) highlights the importance of keeping global temperature rises to 1.5˚C below pre-industrial era levels. Urgent action is need over the next 12 years if there is to be any chance of achieving this target.

Aerosols may be of either natural or anthropogenic origin and can influence climate in several ways: “through both interactions that scatter and/or absorb radiation and through interactions with cloud microphysics and other cloud properties, or upon deposition on snow- or ice-covered surfaces thereby altering their albedo and contributing to climate feedback,” says the Panel’s report.

It defines aerosols as “a suspension of airborne solid or liquid particles, with a typical size between a few nanometres and 10 μm that reside in the atmosphere for at least several hours.”

The report defines air pollution as “degradation of air quality with negative effects on human health or the natural or built environment due to the introduction, by natural processes or human activity, into the atmosphere of substances (gases, aerosols) which have a direct (primary pollutants) or indirect (secondary pollutants) harmful effect.”

Air pollution is the theme for World Environment Day on 5 June 2019. The quality of the air we breathe depends on the lifestyle choices we make every day. Learn more about how air pollution affects you, and what is being done to clean the air. What are you doing to reduce your emissions footprint and #BeatAirPollution?

The 2019 World Environment Day is hosted by China.

*SOURCE: UN Environment. Go to ORIGINAL.