Virtual Seminar on Quick Wins for Climate & Development

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(Paris)
Virtual

On Thursday, September 14th the OECD ENVIRONET in partnership with USAID and the CCAC held a virtual event on Quick Wins for Climate & Development – the Climate & Clean Air Coalition (CCAC). This primer event, ahead of the main event at the ENVIRONET Annual Meeting on October 5, outlined the development benefits of reducing short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs), showcased the work of the CCAC to date with presentations from country partners, and identified how the development community can best engage in scaling up action to reduce SLCPs.  

Key takeaways from this session included:  

  • Reducing SLCPs this decade presents an opportunity to achieve local health, food security, and economic development co-benefits for millions of people around the globe while keeping 1.5 degrees of warming within reach. These reductions are important to those already suffering from the results of climate change, to prevent biodiversity loss, to provide additional time for adaptation, and to realize the associated health and agricultural benefits.  

  • The amount of funding going into SLCP reductions including for methane is lagging way behind, in terms of the mitigation potential, the possibilities to build resilience, and the success of global political commitments under the Global methane Pledge (GMP) now joined by more than 150 countries. There is also an important discrepancy between the enormous impacts of air pollution, and the small amounts of development financing being dedicated to tackling it. 

  • Active partnership between ODA-eligible countries and development agencies is critical to scaling up emissions reduction efforts and advancing SLCP-related Sustainable Development Goals (see how SLCPs contribute to SDGs here).  

  • Support provided by the CCAC to ODA-eligible countries including the Maldives, Mexico, Nigeria, Vietnam (all of whom presented at the event) has resulted in policies and regulations as well as capacity building support to reduce SLCP emissions in key sectors. This work has laid the foundation to bring SLCP solutions to scale with additional implementation support required.   

  • Development agencies including the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation (SDC) have made strong commitments to SLCP reductions for climate and air quality benefits, both through the CCAC and in their own development portfolios. This is a successful model which has resulted in additional co-benefits to their own existing projects, and which has spurred new bilateral development partnerships including through Article 6 arrangements.  

  • USAID and SDC invite participants to integrate SLCPs into their own development portfolios, country programs, and lending operations, as well as to join the CCAC while encouraging other multilateral institutions to act on climate & clean air.   

Remote video URL

 

Full Event Summary  

  1. Welcome remarks – Karima Oustadi, ENVIRONET Co-Chair, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Italy 

  • Since 2012, the CCAC has raised global ambition and support to reduce short-lived climate pollutants, addressing air pollution and climate change at the same time for substantial impacts on the ground, achieving co-benefits to food security, health, and economic development.  

  • The CCAC mandate is aligned with the mission of ENVIRONET, and we are pleased to have the opportunity to share good practices and lessons learned on this environmental issue. This event marks the beginning of an exchange of ideas within the ENVIRONET network on climate and clean air as an important development topic.  

 

  1. Martina Otto, Head of Secretariat, Climate and Clean Air Coalition 

  • The CCAC welcomes cooperation with OECD ENVIRONET on the important opportunity that short-lived climate pollutant action can contribute to Sustainable Development Goals, and the need to scale up finance in this area.  

  • The Global Methane Assessment made the case for action from the CCAC on methane, giving rise to the political commitment of the GMP following a decade of work. The CCAC is a core implementer of the GMP, supporting countries with policies and planning including under the Methane Roadmap Action Programme (M-RAP) which has supported 55 countries to date, with 30 countries further supported with technical and funding support.  

  • Despite existing support, the amount of funding going into short-lived climate pollutant reductions is lagging way behind, in terms of the mitigation potential, the possibilities to build resilience, and the global and voluntary political commitment under the Global methane Pledge now joined by more than 150 countries to reduce methane emissions by at least 30% by 2030 compared to 2020 levels.  

  • The CCAC is advancing two initiatives to support implementation of SLCP reduction measures: i) the Technology and Economic Assessment Panel (TEAP) for methane is being set up as a pilot to support the technical knowledge needed to implement methane reduction measures, ii) a ‘handshake’ process is being developed with multilateral development banks to ensure CCAC project results are integrated into MDB project preparation processes.  

  • This collaboration is a thought starter to advance together in attracting finance and commitment to short-lived climate pollutant action and its strong development co-benefits, to see what is already being done in terms of SLCP action that is not yet counted, and how SLCPs can further be integrated into the work being done in development aid.  

 

  1. Malick Haidara, Senior Energy and Climate Advisor, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), United States (event moderator) 

  • USAID has supported CCAC activities as key to bridging the gap between country needs and development agencies for climate and clean air. For OECD DAC, the reduction of methane is urgent if we want to be able to meet our climate goals and keep the hope of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius alive.  

  • USAID started examining methane mitigation in 2022 in alignment with the launched of the GMP, examining ongoing activities in agriculture and waste to identify related projects. For example, ensuring methane reduction objectives were integrated into all activities related to livestock productivity, and to begin measuring the methane intensity impact of these activities. 

  • Similarly in the waste sector, USAID is elevating methane objectives in projects related to the management of solid waste, measuring emissions reductions and enhancing methane objectives in some cases with additional funding, for example methane capture from landfills.   

 

  1. Prof. Drew Shindell, Chair of CCAC Scientific Advisory Panel, and Professor at Duke University 

  • Short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) are responsible for about half of warming to date (methane alone around 60-65% as much warming as CO2). SLCPs are also air pollutants harmful to people, ecosystems, and agricultural productivity. SLCPs are present in the atmosphere for a few days up to a few years, meaning reducing them is an opportunity to achieve reductions in warming in the short-term.  

  • Unlike with CO2 which is absorbed by plants to grow, methane is a precursor to tropospheric ozone which is toxic to plants. Methane therefore has a much larger impact than CO2 on agriculture because there is no fertilization offset. This applies to all major crops, including wheat, rice, and soy, producing far fewer yields when exposed to tropospheric ozone relative to clean air environments, weakening food security across the globe.  

  • SLCPs give us by far the most leverage to bend the curve before 2030. Fast action to reduce SLCPs along with deep decarbonization is vital – waiting to 2050 to mitigate SLCPs may significantly reduce warning, but without the enormous co-benefits including 40 million cumulative avoided deaths largely from air pollution.  

  • Reducing methane can avoid 0.3 degrees of warming by 2040, billions of hours of lost work exposure, 255,00 deaths from respiratory and cardiovascular disease, and 26 million tonnes of staple crop losses. The bulk of methane controls are available at low or no cost, meaning less than 20$/ton of CO2 equivalent, not including the environmental damages saved.  

  • SLCPs impact not only climate warming, but also weather partners as demonstrated in the CCAC, UNEP, AUC Integrated Assessment of Air Pollution and Climate Change for Sustainable Development in Africa, which showed that under a baseline scenario, droughts are induced through continued fossil fuel use whereas implementation of proposed SLCP reduction measures can essentially make that induced drought go away. This is an interesting and empowering message – Africa can control its climate future in terms of things like rainfall and air quality, making integrated climate and clean air action key moving forward.  

  • SLCP reductions are important to those already suffering from the results of climate change, to prevent biodiversity loss, to provide additional time for adaptation, and to realize the associated health and agricultural benefits.  

 

  1. Janine Kuriger, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC)  

 

  • Today there is an important discrepancy between the enormous impacts of air pollution, and the small amounts of development financing being dedicated to tackling it. Despite this, air pollution is a major development challenge causing 7 million premature deaths per year along with cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, with repercussions on children’s health.  

  • Switzerland invests in air pollution reduction because it is crucial for meeting the sustainable development goals, given the multiple co-benefits for human health, food security, protecting ecosystems, poverty reduction and inequality, and contributing to climate change mitigation. Air pollution is explicitly mentioned in two of the SDG goals and contributes to many others.  

  • While air pollution is present in all countries, it disproportionately impacts those in low- and middle-income countries. Supporting clean air action increases the resilience of millions of people.  

  • Switzerland has been working on this topic for over 30 years, supporting local and national governments in Latin America and China, India in developing clean air action plans, as well as innovative technologies such as off-road construction machinery, heavy-vehicle, and bus emissions. This work has been impactful, with new technologies resulting in CO2 reductions, but also safer and healthier working environments.  

  • In addition to bilateral engagement, we support initiatives that bring the topic to the global agenda such as the CCAC. The CCAC allows us to accelerate action on air quality, and to face the common challenges of reducing air pollution in specific sectors. The CCAC offers a platform to share experiences between actors on reducing pollution and enables us to take our experiences to a larger scale while sharing the solutions we have developed.  

  • We strive to systematically integrate climate change into all our programs and projects to raise awareness among our staff on SLCPs, organizing webinars on the impacts and best practices from bilateral and multilateral work.  

  • SDC invites participants to engage in outreach to educate multilateral institutions to target SLCP mitigation more in country programs and lending operations, and to to integrate SLCPs in their own portfolios in addition to joining the CCAC.    

 

  1. Asmau Jibril, Federal Ministry of Environment, Nigeria 

  • Nigeria is a founding partner of the CCAC and has contributed to global efforts to address SLCPs since 2012  

  • In 2019, Nigeria’s National Action Plan to Reduce SLCPs was approved by the National Council of Ministers. The plan serves as Nigeria’s roadmap to advance SLCP mitigation efforts across sectors while implementing standards to monitor and evaluate them.  

  • The 22 priority measures the plan identifies would result in an 83 percent reduction in black carbon emissions by 2030 and reduce methane emissions by 61 percent. These measures would simultaneously reduce other air pollutants, including nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, and carbon dioxide which means they could result in an overall reduction in air pollution exposure of 22 percent by 2030. 

  • This would not only have a meaningful effect on public health, saving an estimated 7,000 people from premature death due to air pollution by 2030. It would also increase crop production, vital for the 3 million Nigerians who are food insecure. 

  • To implement these actions, Nigeria has developed and begun implementation of key regulations including in the upstream oil and gas sector, and is making progress to integrate SLCPs into its climate change monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) system.  

  • CCAC-supported projects in Nigeria continue to support implementation of the identified 22 measures, including in the development of a Tier 2 emission inventory for agriculture and support to reduce open burning, the implementation of oil & gas regulations, and continued capacity building work for Nigeria’s SLCP Unit. Access Nigeria’s Partner Page here

 

  1. Tran Dai Nghia, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Vietnam 

  • Vietnam joined the CCAC in 2017 but has a long been committed to reducing short-lived climate pollutants. Vietnam has integrated SLCPs as part of its action plan to implement the Paris Agreement, including alternate wetting and drying as one of the agriculture mitigation measures to tackle emissions from the rice sector. 

  • Vietnam’s updated NDC in 2020 greatly increased ambition on GHG reductions including for methane, increasing its unconditional GHG emissions reduction target to 15.8% by 2030 relative to a business as usual scenario from the reference year 2010 including LULUCF.  

  • Mitigation pathways have been identified to reduce SLCPs from LULUCF (including sustainable forest management and agro-forestry), crop production (rice cultivation and residues treatment), as well as livestock production (manure management, feed mix). Implementation plans for all conditional and unconditional measures are currently under development, including estimates of implementation costs.  

  • Various implementation challenges continue to exist, including the economic feasibility of implementation, sufficient capacity and tools for robust MRV, risk bearing among stakeholders across the value chain when promoting new practices and technologies, and sufficient policy mechanisms to mobilize/incentivize the private sector to scale up and out practices that achieve co-benefits especially in managing waste and food loss.  

  • CCAC continues to support Vietnam in achieving its NDC commitments, including enhancing MRV frameworks in cooling, enhancing agricultural methane ambitions, and accelerating methane reductions in rice production systems through market-based mechanisms. Access Vietnam’s Partner Page here.  

 

  1. Shazleen Haleemath, Environment Analyst Waste Management and Pollution Control Department, Republic of the Maldives 

  • Maldives joined the Coalition in 2012 to complement its pursuit of a low-emission climate development plan. Maldives is among the world’s most low-lying countries and is highly vulnerable to sea level rise and extreme weather events caused by climate change. 

  • Waste management is a persistent issue, and the government has adopted a zoned approach given the dispersed population across over 1000 atolls with waste segregation including organic waste, inorganic waste, infectious waste, hazardous waste, and bulky waste.  

  • In 2019, the Maldives’ first National Action Plan on Air Pollutants was launched with CCAC support. The plan outlines 28 mitigation measures across three priority source sectors: waste, electricity generation, and transport. If implemented fully, the plan would result in a 40 percent reduction of black carbon, 27 percent reduction of nitrogen oxides, and 59 percent reduction in direct fine particulate matter emissions by 2030 compared to baseline scenarios. This was the first-time air pollutant reductions had been quantified for measures originally developed to reduce greenhouse gases in the country. 

  • To tackle emissions from the waste sector, the Maldives launched the Greater Malé Waste to Energy Project, the largest integrated waste management initiative in the country and aimed to stop incineration and open burning.  

  • The Waste Management Act of 2022 gave the mandate to develop waste regulations and ensure socioeconomic safeguards are in place while reducing black carbon and methane from waste. The ministry of Environment, Climate Change, and Technology is mandated to establish a solid waste management database with caters proper planning, management, and monitoring of the dynamics involved in solid waste.  

  • Continued challenges include a lack of financial resources, a lack of fully implemented regulations and legal frameworks, limitations due to geographical distribution of the country (transportation of waste, establishment of waste management systems), limited capacity monitor policies, plans, and projects implemented, and limited land to manage waste. 

  • The CCAC continues to support the Maldives in implementing identified measures, including on waste sector mitigation, emissions inventories in transport, and capacity building for integrated GHG and SLCP action. Access the Maldives’ Partner Page here.