The impact of short-lived climate pollutants on the human health

Abstract

The hypothesis of short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) has been formulated to develop ways to address global warming by identifying human-made air constituents that cause beneficial radiative forcing. The main features of the SLCPs include methane, hydrofluorocarbons, tropospheric ozone, black carbon, and methane. United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and World Meteorological Organization (WMO) suggested a scenario regarding potential global warming mitigation in which SLCP reduction policies, in addition to those for long-lived greenhouse gases (LLGHGs), may result in a surface air temperature drop of around 0.5 °C. In 2012, the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) began a worldwide project intending to simultaneously address the health issue of global warming via the reduction of SLCPs and waste. Following the Paris Agreement of COP21 in 2015 established a target of the worldwide surface air temperature not to go above two degrees Celsius and a mark to reduce emissions by 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to the pre-industrial period, an integrated mitigation approach to LLGHG and SLCP has grown increasingly critical. The earth's surface air temperature should not exceed two degrees Celsius. These pollutants are anticipated to contribute as much as half of the heat from human activities if no effort is made to curb their emissions in the next few decades. The impacts of indoor and outdoor air pollution result in the untimely deaths of up to 7 million individuals yearly. The primary culprits are SLCPs. Fast action on major SLCP emission sources, such as the widespread implementation of clean cooking and heating fuels and technology, has the opportunity to save almost 2.4 million lives annually.

Keywords

• Air pollution
• Public health
• Global warming potential
• Greenhouse gas mitigation
• Black carbon