Guardian UK
Looks like there has been just a spark of harmony at the Cop18 Climate talks in Doha. They are putting the emphasis where it needs to be right now on short term solutions.
There is no doubt, they are starting to get it. Ministers from 25 countries will co-operate to vastly reduce black carbon (soot), as well as methane and ozone in the atmosphere – substances known collectively as short-lived climate pollutants. In so doing, the members of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) could cut global warming by 0.5C by 2050, which could give the world breathing space from projections of 4C to 6C of warming later this century.
I have written extensively about the need to promote the short term solution of reducing the short lived climate forcers to buy us the time to reduce the much longer living C02 which has accumulated in the atmosphere.
Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN Environment Programme, which helped to found the coalition, said: "Swiftly reducing short-lived climate pollutants represents a supportive and additional action with near-term benefits that need to happen anyway. Indeed for the human health and food security benefits alone, set aside the climate ones, nations need to be acting if they are serious about a transition to an inclusive green economy and realising sustainable development."
[...]
The excruciating pace of the UN talks, and without a globally accepted treaty after 20 years of negotiations, stands in contrast to the action from the CCAC, which was formed in February, with strong support from US secretary of state Hillary Clinton. All of the partner governments have agreed to take action to reduce the substances, for instance by fitting scrubbing equipment to coal-fired power plants or burn landfill gas – methane – for energy. The World Bank is planning to provide finance of about $5bn to the projects.
Some of the projects will focus on other gases, the byproduct of certain industrial processes, known as HFCs. Phasing these out would be the equivalent of saving 100bn tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2050, and could cut warming by a further 0.5C.
Many governments have still not decided whether to join the CCAC, however, include some of the biggest emitters, such as China and India. Insiders say that talks to include them are progressing in a co-operative manner
This is progress. It may be asking too much but they still neglect to notice the elephant/cow in the room. The
largest worldwide contributor(pdf) to the short lived climate pollutants is livestock production. They are
ignoring the drastically important need of reforming agriculture to a more sustainable model with a move away from livestock production. A move necessary to prevent the impending food crisis due to climate change effect on agriculture.