CACP Arctic Policy Initiative
Reducing High-Impact Short-Lived Climate Pollutants
Long-term preservation of the Arctic environment will require deep reductions of CO2. At the same time, it appears possible that a near-term effort to reduce short-term pollutants impacting the Arctic region could help slow warming in the Arctic. Without such reductions, warming will continue to accelerate and will greatly impact the Arctic environment, livelihoods and people. Also there is the potential for an occurrence of a “tipping point” that would entail even greater Arctic, and global, effects.
Photo of Arctic haze over the city of Svalbard in 2006.
Courtesy of AMAP, Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme.
The Climate Policy Center of Clean Air-Cool Planet (CPC/CA-CP) and the Clean Air Task Force (CATF) are engaged in a three-year effort to focus world attention on the contribution of high-impact short-lived pollutants to Arctic warming and to craft a response strategy among governments with territory in Arctic regions. To date, CPC/CATF have convened two intergovernmental meetings for scientists and government officials, and spurred the eight-nation Arctic Council’s Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP) to commission a scientific and policy assessment that could inform policy decisions by Arctic foreign ministers at their April 2009 meeting. The Council’s assessment arm has requested CPC/CATF to assist in the preparation of the assessment.
In pursuing this work, CPC/CATF’s overall goal is to alert policymakers and others to the immediate opportunities to slow the rate of warming in the Arctic through reductions in SLPs, and to provide a road map that incorporates actions that can be adopted and implemented by governments. Immediate objectives of this work include:
Developing the scientific and technical information to support near-term actions that could be taken today to slow Arctic warming within ten years or less (projects include work on global-based methane reductions; implementing a northern hemisphere tropospheric ozone reduction strategy; implementing a black-carbon reduction strategy; and minimizing emissions of SLPs within the Arctic).
Building political support to implement actions across Arctic governments, NGOs and industry. Projects include: outreach on the Arctic to other NGOs; drafting regulatory and legislative policies; and media outreach); and
Targeting selected research to improve understanding of Arctic warming and its effects and lay the foundation for other actions to slow it (projects include further Arctic observations focusing on atmospheric and deposition measurements; study of Arctic climate feedbacks and ice-sheet dynamic).
Download our High-Impact Short-lived Pollutants Fact Sheet here.