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Black Soot Offers Climate-Talks Opportunity, UN Official Says
2010-09-27 12:45:31.100 GMT
By Jeremy van Loon
Sept. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Negotiators at climate change talks
can make progress in setting limits on air pollutants by looking
beyond carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, the United
Nations top environment official said.
Black soot, methane and other non-CO2 gases contribute
almost half of global warming substances in the atmosphere and
reducing output of many of them can be solved without legally
binding agreements, Achim Steiner, executive director of the
United Nations Environment Programme, said in an interview.
"We're looking for policy makers to give support to
accelerated action through bilateral and private sector
partnerships," he said today in Berlin. "This is not an
alternative to limiting CO2."
Negotiations aimed at limiting CO2 emissions set to resume
in November in Cancun, Mexico, have been bogged down by
conflicts over money for poor countries to adjust to climate
change and greenhouse gas limits for countries such as China and
India. There may be "no hope" for reaching an agreement this
year in the Mexican coastal resort if disagreements persist,
U.S. lead negotiator Jonathan Pershing said last month.
Current pledges by all nations remain insufficient to limit
the average increase in global temperature to 2 degrees Celsius
(3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), which was also agreed to in Copenhagen
last year. The UN estimates that commitments amount to a cut of
12 percent to 19 percent from 1990 levels, short of the 25 to 40
percent needed.
Black soot is formed by partial combustion of fossil fuels,
burning forests and biofuels. It remains in the atmosphere for
several days or weeks, less than carbon dioxide, which remains
in the atmosphere for about a century.
For Related News and Information:
Top environment stories: GREEN <GO>
News stories about climate change: NI CLIMATE <GO>
Locations of global energy facilities: BMAP <GO>
Top Stories: TOP<GO>
--Editors: Todd White, Alex Devine
To contact the reporter on this story:
Jeremy van Loon in Berlin at +49-30-70010-6231 or
jvanloon@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Reed Landberg at +44-20-7330-7862 or
landberg@bloomberg.net
