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The Climate and Clean Air Coalition

Connecting climate and clean air action to achieve multiple near-term benefits

The Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) is a voluntary partnership of over 160 governments, intergovernmental organizations, and non-governmental organizations founded in 2012, and convened within UNEP.

Collectively and individually, partners who join the Climate and Clean Air Coalition are working to reduce powerful but short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) – methane, black carbon, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), and tropospheric ozone – that drive both climate change and air pollution.

We aim to connect ambitious agenda-setting with targeted mitigation action within countries and sectors. Robust science and analysis underpin our efforts. We support action to reduce short-lived climate pollutants in more than 70 countries through the funding of projects and the individual actions of our partners.

The partnership works to reduce global warming in the near-term to achieve Paris Agreement goals and support economic development, improved health, and environmental and food security benefits.

Through the CCAC Trust Fund, we fund projects in developing countries to enable actions that deliver climate, air quality and development benefits. Our project funding is split between national policy development and implementation of mitigation measures.

We provide secretariat functions of the Global Methane Pledge, and the coordination group of the Lowering Organic Waste Methane Initiative is housed in CCAC.

Our vision

An atmosphere that enables people and the planet to thrive – stabilizing the climate with warming limited to 1.5°C and drastically reduced air pollution.

Our mission

Put the world on a pathway that rapidly reduces warming in the near-term and maximizes development, health, environmental and food security benefits. We will achieve this by catalysing fast action to reduce short-lived climate pollutants. The Coalition is the only global organization dedicated to this task.

The potential to significantly reduce short-lived climate pollutants guides our work. Global action, if taken now, could achieve reductions of at least 40% of methane and up to 70% of black carbon by 2030, compared to 2010 levels. By 2050, 99.5% of HFCs can be eliminated. This would avoid 0.6ºC of warming by 2050 and improve the health and livelihoods of millions.

Our 2030 Strategy sets out how we will drive action this decade. We focus our resources on supporting national mitigation action, while continuing to convene leaders, advance the transformation of key sectors, and provide policy-relevant research and analysis.

In the decade ahead, the CCAC's work will be more critical than ever – dramatic reductions in emissions of short-lived climate pollutants are a critical component of efforts to keep warming below 1.5⁰C.

John Kerry
Special Presidential Envoy for Climate
United States

History

A 2011 study by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) shed light on the harm that short-lived climate pollutants have on the climate, and how reducing them could have a significant impact on global warming in the short term.

The study found that readily available solutions targeting these pollutants would slow the rate of global warming much faster than action on carbon dioxide alone. These solutions would also reduce air pollution, representing “win-win” results for the climate, air quality, and human wellbeing within a relatively short timeframe.

In 2012, the governments of Bangladesh, Canada, Ghana, Mexico, Sweden and the United States, along with UNEP, initiated efforts to treat short-lived climate pollutants as an urgent and collective challenge. Together, they formed the Climate and Clean Air Coalition to support fast action.

Since its founding, the CCAC has raised awareness of the need to act on these pollutants to rapidly reduce the rate of warming in the near term, improved the science behind SLCPs, and carried out projects in emitting sectors to prove the feasibility of available solutions.

Today, governments and climate scientists around the world recognise that reducing SLCPs, alongside carbon dioxide, is essential to avoid catastrophic global warming. As the result of our work and the work of our partners, we are starting to see the trajectory for these pollutants change.

Trust fund

The CCAC’s work is funded by a trust fund that receives voluntary contributions from countries. The trust fund is used to support the partnership and our projects to assist developing countries in achieving their climate, air quality and development objectives.

Funding allocations are decided by our partners, in accordance with the CCAC Framework. Between 2012-2021, the CCAC allocated a total of US$65 million for projects and US$19 million for partnership activities that include mobilising high level political will, raising awareness, convening the partnership, and Secretariat support.

We thank everyone who has supported our work.

Trust fund figures

Reducing short-lived climate pollutants such as methane, black carbon, and HFCs is one of the surest ways to cut the rate of warming in the near-term, slow self-reinforcing feedback and avoid irreversible tipping points.

Thanks to the CCAC and their partners, these issues have been taken head-on and I want to use this opportunity to call leaders for further action and commitment.

Dr. Kwaku Afriyie
Minister of the Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation
Ghana

Governance

The CCAC is a highly cooperative group led by our state partners. Our governance model distributes governing and advisory responsibility among several entities, reflecting the diversity of our partners and ensuring that we take informed actions and decisions.

Six primary groups help advance our mission and direct our activities.

About our governing bodies

Results

Since our creation in 2012, we have been promoting integrated climate and clean air action, putting people's health and well-being at the top of the policy agenda.

Many of our country partners have developed national action plans and policies that integrate climate, air quality and development goals, and we continue to build capacity and catalyze action to enable more partners and new organizations to take action.

Our results