Climate and Clean Air Coalition Working Group meets in Santiago, Chile

The Climate and Clean Air Coalition’s (CCAC) Working Group gathered in Santiago, Chile to celebrate five years of action to reduce short-lived climate pollutants, get briefed on the latest science on the subject, and strategize ways to increase the impact and ambition of the Coalition’s work going forward.

Partners were reminded of how much the Coalition has grown since it was founded by 7 partners in 2012 and the key accomplishments it has achieved since.

In 2012, the majority of air pollution regulators did not make the connection between climate change and air quality monitoring. Nor was near-term climate mitigation, or the benefits to health and agriculture that comes with it, high on the climate change agenda. Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) were still replacing the ozone depleting substances under the Montreal protocol.

Five years later, in 2017, this has changed. The Coalition has helped to bring short-lived climate pollutants to the political forefront. The Coalition’s High Level Assembly is a place where Ministers can showcase progress, share ideas, set priorities, and launch calls for action. Coalition ministers led efforts to phase-down HFCs under the Montreal Protocol and helped pass the Kigali Amendment to do so last October.

The 11 partner-led initiatives have generated awareness, information, assessments and guidance that have helped showcase solutions and in some occasions have turned into major policy shifts on short-lived climate pollution mitigation measures.

The Coalition has grown considerably in the last five years and now has 114 partners comprised of 52 countries, 17 international organizations, and 45 non-government organizations (NGOs). The Working Group took the opportunity to welcome the Coalition’s two newest members, Costa Rica, and the Asian Development Bank. 

Chile leading by example

The location of this year’s Working Group meeting also gave participants the opportunity to witness Chile’s achievements and ambitious plans to improve air quality.

Marcelo Mena Carrasco, Chile’s Minister for Environment and outgoing Coalition Co-Chair, welcomed delegates to Santiago saying air pollution is a hot topic in Chile and urged the Coalition to continue “on a path to provide clean air and a better climate future for our children”.  

“Too often governments operate in silos and are not very good at connecting the dots between climate and air pollution, the different sectors involved, and how different policies can enhance or impact each other. But I think the CCAC has been able to connect those dots. It has been able to put a human face on climate policy.”

Chile is taking bold steps to reduce air pollution and the commitment across all levels of government and society is impressive. Mr Carrasco said that while Chile had already achieved a lot there is strong ambition to do a lot more.  

For example, a 2014 tax on vehicle emissions of carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides saw emissions drop by 30% between 2015 and 2016.  Fuel economy rose by 3% and the tax incentivised the importation of less polluting Euro 6 vehicles.

Mr Carrasco used the opportunity to announce a plan to introduce a new vehicle regulation.

“This time we won’t have special regulations for diesel,” he said. “It will be Chile’s first non-fuel differentiated emissions standard. Each car will have to meet a single standard.”

Chile’s work on Coalition initiatives is also producing measurable results across a number of sectors.

“Funding to reduce hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) from refrigeration and air conditioning has enabled Chile to install climate friendly alternatives like trans-critical carbon dioxide in new grocery stores. Investment in transforming the brick sector has led to better bricks, higher productivity, and better health for those living near kilns,” Mr Carrasco said.   

Coalition members thanked Mr Carrasco for his leadership over the last two years and look forward to being inspired by Chile’s continued efforts to improve air quality. 

New Coalition Co-Chair

Chile’s Co-Chair of the Coalition now passes to Kenya. Alice Akinyi Kaudia, Environment Secretary with the Kenyan Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, replaces Minister Carrasco.

Accepting the position Ms Akinyi Kaudia said she was excited to take up the important responsibility.

“My excitement triggered childhood memories of my village, where the kitchen is a cooking space for a single pot balanced on three stones. As the sun sets, women strive to quickly cook. The darkness is lit by a piece of wood, or at best, a tin lamp with a yellow light and black soot at its tip. Tears and coughing are a part of cooking.”

“I hope to make an immense contribution from my practical experience and knowledge, to improve the wellbeing of millions of people who still suffer from pollution caused by short-lived climate pollutants,” Ms Akinyi Kaudia said. 

New Funding

An important task for the working group was to allocate new funding. Over the last funding cycle the Coalition recieved three full proposals and 12 concept notes requesting $8.4 million in additional funding.

The Coalition’s Steering Committee presented their recommendations on the funding allocations to the working group, which agreed to $4.6 million dollars in funding for 11 of the 15 proposals put forward. The working group recommended that future proposals should emphasize co-financing, show transformative impact and have exit strategies.

The Coalition will provide $660,000 to the agriculture initiative to reduce enteric methane for food security and livelihoods. Livestock methane emissions have been responsible for up to 20% of the warming the earth has experience since the industrial revolution and today ruminant livestock produces about 2.7 gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalent of methane annually. Around 1/5th can be reduced through known good practices that increase productivity. The funding will ensure these good practices are part of major investment projects totalling approximately half a billion US Dollars in three countries - Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Uruguay.

The Diesel initiative will receive $850,000 to implement the Global Strategy to Introduce Low Sulfur Fuels and Cleaner Diesel Vehicles. The Oil and Gas initiative will receive $1 million split across three work areas. $400,000 will support regulatory capacity building for the Oil and Gas Methane Partnership. $360,000 goes to a global study on Oil and Gas methane emissions. The study will also receive external in-kind contributions totalling $600,000, and $6.6 million in co-financing. Another $300,000 is for direct peer-to-peer engagement and country support.

Municipal Solid Waste receives $450,000 to build capacity and expert support to finance waste infrastructure in cities and to help major emitting cities develop waste management policies and practices that support SLCP reduction.

The initiative to Support National Action and Planning (SNAP) will receive $500,000 to help 20 countries develop black carbon and co-pollutant emissions inventories, validate and improve LEAP-IBC methods that link to emission inventory efforts by the Convention on Long Range Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP), and to improve policy coherence between atmospheric and energy policies and implementing Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

A Household Energy project in Nigeria to develop a clean cooking finance mechanism in Nigeria will receive $320,000. The Finance initiative will receive $200,000 to support proposal development for Green Climate Funds.

A further $250,000 will go to the joint World Health Organization, UN Environment and Climate and Clean Air Coalition’s BreatheLife campaign, to support rapid expansion of the campaign and the development of outreach materials for BreatheLife cities. Four Chilean cities joined the BreatheLife campaign the week before the Working Group meeting.

Working Group members also participated in four breakout groups looking at ways to increase impact and to be considered in the future development of initiatives. The breakout groups looked at Finance, Household Energy, Health and work at the sub-national level e.g. cities, and Supporting National Action and Planning (SNAP), institutional strengthening, and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

The next Working Group will take place in Paris in September.

The International Institute for Sustainable Development Reporting Services (IISDRS) covered the Working Group meeting. You can find links to their photos and report below.

IISDRS Photos

IISDRS Report