Inger Andersen urges inclusion of ‘super pollutants’ such as methane and black carbon in NDCs
- February 24, 2024
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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Inger Andersen urges inclusion of ‘super pollutants’ such as methane and black carbon in NDCs
Subject: Environment
Section: Climate change
Context:
- The Climate and Clean Air Conference 2024 began on February 21, ahead of the sixth United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-6), with a call for international collaboration to phase-out short-lived climate pollutants, or “super pollutants”, such as methane, black carbon and hydrofluorocarbons.
More on news:
- UNEA-6 will be held in Nairobi from February 26 to March 1 under the theme of “effective, inclusive and sustainable multilateral actions to tackle the triple planetary crisis: climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste.”
- It urged countries to include ‘Super pollutants’ such as methane and black carbon in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC).
- Significance of agreements such as the Kigali Amendment, the Montreal Protocol and the Global Methane Pledge to remove super pollutants from the atmosphere was highlighted.
About Super Pollutants:
- Super pollutants, also sometimes referred to as short-lived climate pollutants (SCLPs), derive their name from their relatively short life in the atmosphere as compared to carbon dioxide.
- For example, black carbon has a lifespan in the atmosphere of just a few days before falling to the earth, and methane persists for a little more than a decade.
- Other examples are Methane, frabout Hydroflourocarbons and Ground Level Ozone.
About Emission Gap Report (2023)
- UNEP has published the 14th Emission Gap Report 2023.
- There is only a 14 percent chance of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels, considering the most optimistic climate action projects.
- Even if the existing nationally determined contributions (NDC), both conditional and unconditional, are delivered by 2030, the world will warm by 2.5°C, breaching the 2°C target set by the Paris Agreement.
Global Methane Pledge
- The pledge was first announced in September by the US and EU, and is essentially an agreement to reduce global methane emissions.
- One of the central aims of this agreement is to cut down methane emissions by up to 30 per cent from 2020 levels by the year 2030.
About United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)- Background:
- In 1972, the UNGA passed what is formally known as UN-Resolution 2997.
- It would be the last step in the establishment of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) – an organization conceived to spearhead a global effort to minimize humanity’s footprint on the planet.
- Headquarters: Nairobi, Kenya.
- Governing Body: UNEA(formed in 2012) – meets once in two years.
- It hosts various Conventions like Minamata Convention, UNCBD, CITES, Basel Convention, Stockholm Convention, Rotterdam Convention, Montreal Protocol, Vienna Convention, CMS, Carpathian, Bamako, Tehran Convention.
- Important Treaties signed under UNEP are IPCC, Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS), Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Multilateral Fund for the implementation of Montreal Protocol.