Scientists from SEI help launch major climate study

Fast action on pollutants such as black carbon, ground level ozone and methane may help limit near term global temperature rise and significantly increase the chances of keeping temperature rise below 2 degrees C, says a new assessment launched today.

The Stockholm Environment Institute at the University of York has played a key role in a new United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)/World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Assessment of how to reduce the impact of black carbon and tropospheric ozone which adversely affect public health, crop yields and contribute to climate change.

The study concludes that protecting the near-term climate is central to significantly cutting the risk of ''amplified global climate change'' linked with rapid and extensive loss of Arctic ice on both the land and at sea.

Fast action might also reduce losses of mountain glaciers linked in part with black carbon deposits while reducing projected warming in the Arctic over the coming decades by two thirds.

Scientists also point to numerous public health and food security opportunities beyond those linked with tackling climate change.

Big cuts in emissions of black carbon will improve respiratory health; reduce hospital admissions and days lost at work due to sickness, says the assessment whose Secretariat is provided by the Stockholm Environment Institute. Close to 2.5 million premature deaths from outdoor air pollution could on average be avoided annually world-wide by 2030 with many of those lives saved being in Asia, the assessment suggests.