Action Programme to Address the 1.5˚C Challenge

The IPCC 1.5˚C Report is clear that we need to slow the rate of warming as soon as possible in order to limit the dangerous and irreversible impacts of climate change.

Achieving this will require all countries and actors to take ambitious action to reduce short-lived climate pollutant (SLCP) emissions now.

The Coalition's Action Programme to Address the 1.5˚C Challenge helps countries to enhance ambition and act quickly to reduce these pollutants.

By focusing on actions that integrate climate and clean air objectives, countries can quickly address local priorities and contribute to the long-term Paris Agreement temperature target.

3 steps to address the challenge

Engaging leaders to showcase how addressing air pollution, health and other local priorities can simultaneously drive climate ambition.

Taking the Coalition’s tools to countries to identify their best mitigation options, and help find ways to embed these across the government.

Development of robust scientific and analytical work that gives decision-makers the confidence to act.

What we're doing

The Action Programme funds projects to help foster short-lived climate pollutant policies and mitigation actions in countries and regions. These include:

• Advancing the Clean Air, Health and Climate Integration Agenda in the ASEAN Region

• An integrated assessment for China’s Paris Agreement and air quality targets to support its 14th Five-Year Plan

• Securing high-level city commitments for soot-free buses in Eastern Africa and integrating benefits of adopting soot-free buses in Kenya’s NDC

• Capacity building for the development of policies to reduce methane emissions from the oil and gas sector in Nigeria

• Including black carbon in Chile’s long-term climate strategy 

• Estimation of Morbidity from Air Pollution and its Economic Costs

Our regional roundtable meetings have brought together Ministers and other high-level representatives to share best practices that can simultaneously deliver the Paris Agreement goals and and clean air benefits.
 

• Africa: Ministers and high-level representatives from Burkina Faso, Guinea Bissau, and Niger, United Nations Climate Change (UNFCCC), UN Environment, the World Bank, Agence Francaise de Development, and Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI) were amongst the attendees at the closed-door Ministerial roundtable discussion held in Accra, Ghana on 19 March 2019 during the Africa Climate Week. Participants acknowledged the need to accelerate reductions of short-lived climate pollutants to raise ambition on climate change, and the associated multiple benefits for air quality, human wellbeing, food and livelihoods that come from such actions. Learn about the meeting outcomes.
• Asia and the Pacific: The Coalition hosted the ASEAN Ministerial Roundtable Discussion on Clean Air, Health and Climate in Manila, Philippines on 24 July, 2019.  This meeting gave Ministers the informal opportunity to prepare as a region for the UN Secretary-General’s Climate Action Summit, and the 15th ASEAN Plus Three Environment Ministers Meeting in September 2019. The discussion was followed by a Senior Level Workshop on the same subject in Makati City, Philippines from 24-25 July. The workshop demonstrated the benefits of linking air quality and climate change action and encouraged commitments from Asia-Pacific countries to raise the ambition in their nationally determined contributions (NDCs) through integrated actions, such as those to reduce short-lived climate pollutants.
• Latin America and the Caribbean: Roundtable discussions held in Antigua, Guatemala on 28 May, 2019 and Punta Cana, Dominican Republic on 3-4 June, 2019 led to a call by Central American environment ministers for a “regional action plan on climate and clean air” to address the increasing problems of both air pollution and the impact of climate change.