Actions in the Agriculture and Municipal Solid Waste Sectors to Improve Air Quality and Protect our Climate

We all share a single atmosphere. Protecting this shared resource is spurring Climate and Clean Air Coalition Partners to take fast action to simultaneously tackle both climate warming and air pollution.

Ministers and leaders met this week at the Coalition’s annual High level Assembly to share the actions they will take to save lives and protect the environment. This year’s focus was on efforts to reduce methane and black carbon emissions from agriculture and municipal solid waste. 119 Partners (countries and non-states) endorsed the “Bonn Communique”, and recorded their intent to take voluntary actions.

So what specific actions can Coalition partners choose from to reduce these short-lived climate pollutants from agriculture and municipal solid waste?

The Coalition’s Agriculture and the Municipal Solid Waste initiatives, have developed and identified many practical solutions. I would like to share a menu of practical actions from this work that countries and non-states actors can take to implement – whether or not they are part of the Coalition.

I encourage all to share their experience and best practices through our web platform, initiatives, and BreatheLife campaign. If you know of additional solutions not listed here, tell us so we can add those to our recommendations.

We also encourage Coalition Partners to engage in peer-to-peer support with other national or local authorities through technical cooperation and exchanges, to develop and/or implement relevant policies and measures in the agriculture and municipal solid waste sectors over the coming years. We are happy to assist you in making the necessary connections, as needed!

AGRICULTURAL SECTOR

In the Bonn Communique, Coalition Partners resolved to develop policies and measures to reduce emissions from the agricultural sector and help improve the productivity, resilience and livelihoods of farmers.

This will involve finding better ways to monitor emissions from livestock and reflecting these results in national climate actions, as well as working with farmers to help eliminate unnecessary open burning, such as through incentives to adopt alternative agricultural practices.

Practical options that all countries and other non-state actors can take include those below.

Sector-wide:

• Outreach to agriculture ministries and ministers, as well as health ministers, for example through establishment of multi-ministry working groups to address SLCP emissions and impacts
• Improved national emissions inventories of both methane and black carbon from the agriculture sector, and inclusion of these in national NDCs and climate action plans
• Participation in the CCAC’s SNAP Initiative with inclusion of agriculture SLCP emissions

Livestock:

• Improved accuracy on emissions from enteric fermentation and manure management
• Advancing from Tier 1 IPCC inventory methods to Tier 2 and 3, by including additional data on livestock management and production characteristics (animal diet, production, and animal weight)
• For example, through an improved inventory the impact of feeding, animal husbandry, and improved productivity on reducing emissions can be captured. With support mechanisms available from the CCAC, this would enable countries to reflect these improvements in their NDCs.  

Manure Management:

• Develop national- and project-level integrated manure management plans, together with relevant ministries (agriculture, finance, energy), to incentivize practices that reduce SLCP emissions, including mechanisms to incorporate these practices locally
• Establish agricultural extension programs teaching environmentally sustainable (including water quality) methods to apply manure to soils, increasing soil health and decreasing need for fertilizers while decreasing methane emissions
• Create a detailed inventory of available livestock manure management practices relevant to country systems
• Design a program or pathway for scaling-up of biogas production from the anaerobic digestion of livestock manure for energy use, for example through a GCF proposal, with appropriate understanding of local market needs and benefits.

Paddy Rice:

• Work with agriculture ministries and donors to identify which of the suite of technical options available to decrease methane emissions is most applicable to national realities (e.g. fertilizer efficiency/deep placement; intermittent drainage; fallow management; residue management; reduced burning; pairing levelling with water management; improved, short-duration rice varieties). 
• Develop transparent and robust national and local reporting systems on current practices.
• Support for financing proposals to support transition to these methods, both through national incentive programs, support for businesses and development assistance including GEF and GCF proposals

Open Burning:

• Partner with agriculture ministries to establish national real-time fires monitoring programs, for example in cooperation with the CCAC project to map incidence and reasons for burning as a baseline as well as incidence of wildfires originating from set fires in the agriculture and forestry sectors.
• Include GHG as well as SLCP emissions from burning in national emission inventories, based on annual mapping results.
• Incorporate education on open burning impacts in agricultural extension programs, including on the negative impact of burns on crop yields, nutrient loss and erosion.
• Encourage adoption of no-burn methods through education and incentives, such as subsidies and micro-financing of equipment for farmers transitioning to no-burn methods, especially those that incorporate conservation agriculture methods that can result in negative carbon emissions and with potential GCF or GEF support.
• Explore future regulatory methods, including local legislation to discourage burning, for example through use of permits as well as eventual bans on burning

More information on the Coalition’s agriculture work: http://www.ccacoalition.org/en/initiatives/agriculture

MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE SECTOR

In the Bonn Communique, Coalition Partners resolved to develop policies and measures that encourage national, state, and local governments to reduce emissions from municipal solid waste and, working with the private sector, create healthy cities and communities.

This will involve preventing and reducing food loss and waste, including by setting up integrated solid waste management systems oriented towards resource and energy recovery; diverting organic waste from landfills; adopting measures to capture and use methane from landfills; and reducing the open burning of waste, while working towards achieving universal waste collection by 2025.

Below are some of the practical options that all countries and other non-state actors can take.

Divert organic waste: 

Minimize landfilling of biodegradable waste to avoid methane generation in landfills and to reduce the costs, potential environmental and health impacts and to recover resources and energy.

Specific actions could include:

• Adoption of regulations/policies to encourage organic waste diversion from landfills.
• Setup of efficient cost recovery mechanisms, including establishment of market support mechanism for recycling products and favor energy recovery from waste and phase-out of possible subsidies for chemical fertilizers.
• Provision of necessary organizational and financial capacity building.
• Creation of an enabling framework for private sector participation including community-based and non-governmental actions.
• Support for adequate infrastructure to source separate, divert and treat organic waste.

Capture landfill gas:

Utilize landfill gas to prevent methane emissions.

Specific actions could include:

• Adoption of policy measures that favor renewable energy sources over fossil fuels.
• Offer incentives for the development of landfill gas utilization projects.
• Provide tax advantages to the technologies that utilize landfill gas.

Stop open burning:

Aiming for universal and environmentally friendly collection to prevent the release of black carbon, as well as other cancer-causing compounds or toxic substances.

Specific actions could include:

• Working towards reaching universal collection by 2025.

Reduce food loss & waste:

Working along the food supply chain to minimize food loss & waste and prevent methane emissions.

Specific actions could include:

• Support of voluntary agreements/consumer campaigns to discourage food waste throughout the value chain from farm to household/restaurants, which can build on established practices such as UNEP’s Guidance for the Prevention and Reduction of Food Waste.
• Make commitments to prevent and reduce food waste, and divert food waste from landfill.
• Enable private sector participation and commitment, especially with large producers of biodegradable waste.
• Support of diversion of edible but unsold food for consumption by those in need, if not fit for human consumption then to feed animals.

More information on the Coalition’s municipal solid waste initiative: http://www.ccacoalition.org/en/initiatives/waste

Send us more practical actions and good practices to: ccac_secretariat [at] unep.org (ccac_secretariat[at]unep[dot]org)