What's New List Serve Post Display

What's New List Serve Post Display

Below is the List Serve Post you selected to display.
newsrel -- ARB releases plan to slash short-lived climate pollutants

Posted: 30 Sep 2015 09:50:46
Please consider the following news release from the California
Air Resources Board: http://bit.ly/1LPnBfX
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 30, 2015

NEWS RELEASE 15-61

CONTACT:		

Stanley Young
(916) 322-2990
stanley.young@arb.ca.gov


ARB releases plan to slash short-lived climate pollutants

Reductions of potent heat-trapping gases will deliver health and
economic benefits

SACRAMENTO — Building on California’s climate leadership, the Air
Resources Board today released a draft Short-Lived Climate
Pollutant Reduction Strategy, pursuant to Senate Bill 605 (Lara).
The draft strategy describes proposed actions the State will take
to move forward aggressively to reduce emissions of short-lived
climate pollutants (SLCPs) and help meet Governor Brown’s goal of
reducing greenhouse gases 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. 

SLCPs include methane, black carbon and fluorinated gases
(F-gases) such as refrigerants, insulating foam and aerosol
propellants. They are harmful air pollutants and powerful
contributors to climate change, trapping heat at many times the
level of carbon dioxide, and are responsible for about 40 percent
of current global warming. 

Mobilizing Action

The draft strategy follows Governor Brown’s announcement last
Thursday – at an event in New York hosted by the United Nations
Environment Programme and the Climate and Clean Air Coalition to
Reduce Short-Lived Climate Pollutants – that California would
reduce emissions of methane and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) by 40
percent below current levels by 2030, and black carbon by 50
percent below current levels by 2030. It also comes a week after
bi-partisan legislation was re-introduced in the U.S. Senate to
address SLCPs nationally.

“We’re completely committed,” said Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr.
“We’re mobilizing the science, we’re mobilizing the legislative
resources, and whatever else is needed. We will also continue to
work with countries like Mexico, India and China to help them
deal with air pollution issues.”

The Missing Link: Controlling Short-Lived Climate Pollutants

Strong, immediate action to cut emissions of both carbon dioxide
and SLCPs is necessary to limit average global warming below 2
degrees Celsius. 

“California has set ambitious climate goals and has the most
comprehensive set of policies and programs in place to reduce air
pollution and carbon emissions from all sources,” said Mary
Nichols, Chair of the Air Resources Board. “Now, we’re doing the
same for short-lived climate pollutants. They’re the missing link
on our global path to limiting warming below 2 degrees Celsius.”

Building on Success

The draft strategy describes existing and proposed new efforts to
meet the targets laid out by the Governor.

Black Carbon

Black carbon is a component of fine particulate matter, which the
State has addressed for decades through its efforts to improve
air quality and reduce toxic air pollution from diesel vehicles.
California has cut emissions of black carbon by well over 90
percent since the 1960s. These efforts avoid an estimated 5,000
premature deaths in the State each year, have cut cancer risk
from exposure to air toxics by nearly 70 percent since 1990, and
have been linked to improved lung function and capacity in
children. 

The draft strategy recommends building on, accelerating, and
expanding existing state and local programs to improve air
quality and reduce carbon emissions, including those related to
sustainable freight, clean energy and improved forest
management.

Methane

California already has measures in place to reduce methane from
many of its sources, and is developing a comprehensive framework
to minimize methane emissions from oil and gas systems. 

The draft strategy proposes achieving additional reductions
through investments, incentives, regulations and other actions to
capture value from organic waste streams in California that are
responsible for about half of the state’s methane emissions.
Renewable energy, compost and other products from organic waste
streams could represent a billion dollar market for California,
with much of the economic activity centralized in the Central
Valley and rural parts of the state. 

To put these resources to good use, the strategy proposes a
regulation to effectively eliminate the disposal of organics in
landfills by 2025, and actions to cut methane emissions from
dairy manure by 75 percent below current levels by 2030. 

Fluorinated gases

Under AB 32, the State already has a program in place to address
leaks from commercial refrigeration systems that will cut F-gas
emissions by an estimated 25 percent in 2020 below otherwise
expected levels. Additional steps are proposed in the strategy to
accelerate the transition away from hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) in
new refrigeration, air conditioning equipment and by taking early
actions to significantly reduce these gases from commercial
refrigeration. 

International support is growing for an agreement in November to
phase down the production and use of HFCs under the Montreal
Protocol. Doing so would significantly curtail greenhouse gas
emissions from the fastest growing source globally. If an
agreement is not reached in November, California may develop its
own phase down, as Europe and other countries already are doing.


Significant Benefits

Action on SLCPs is an integral part of global efforts to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions and minimize the impacts of climate
change. It can deliver immediate global climate and local health
and economic benefits.

"If more countries, states and cities took the same bold steps as
California already has on black carbon, and intends to take on
methane, we could cut global warming by half a degree Celsius in
the next 20 years, save about 3 million lives annually, and cut
global crop losses by about 50 million tonnes per year,” said
Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the United Nations
Environment Programme. "We can scale up these kinds of actions
through peer-to-peer support and partnerships such as the Climate
and Clean Air Coalition."

To view the draft Short-Lived Climate Pollutant Reduction
Strategy and additional information on SLCPs, visit
http://bit.ly/SLclimatepollutants


California is in a drought emergency.
Visit www.SaveOurH2O.org for water conservation tips.

ARB What's New

preload