Climate and Clean Air Coalition at the Climate Chance Summit in Nantes, France

The Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) participated in two events at the recent Climate Chance Summit, in Nantes, France: urban solutions to reduce air pollutions and a forum on transport and mobility looking at ways to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the transport sector. The new global summit aims to turn the global problem of climate change into local action by working with cities, towns and all civil society on solutions for concrete, ambitious and real action. The summit brought together non-state actors from the private sector, non-governmental organizations, research insitutions, local governments, indegenous peoples, trade unions, farming organisations, Children and Youth, and women and gender organisations, to discuss what they can do to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Urban Solutions to Reduce Air Pollution

The CCAC organized a focus session on urban solutions to reduce air pollution, slow global warming and protect human health. The event showcased solutions at the city and national level that reduce emissions of short-lived climate pollutants across sectors. The CCAC ambitions to encourage more cities and countries to take action to bring these solutions to scale. Key solutions that have been showcased include soot-free urban bus fleets and best practices in municipal solid waste management. The discussion moved from France to Europe (Madrid) and to the global level and was moderated by Yekbun Gurgoz, Coordinator at the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC).

Bernard Garnier, Président ATMO France (Network of Associations of Air Quality Monitoring in France) gave an overview of the health and climate impacts of air pollution. According Mr Garnier, local leaders were often aware of the health benefits of improving air quality.

Juan Azcárate Luxán, from Madrid City Council (Environment and Mobility Area) presented Madrid’s Air Quality and Climate Change strategies. The city has a holistic approach to improving air quality, tackling the transport, building, domestic heating and waste sectors at the same time. The city serves as an example of linking air quality and climate change strategies at city level.

Maryke van Staden, Manager of ICLEI's (Local Governments for Sustainability) Low Carbon City Program, gave global examples of cities and towns tackling climate change and air quality issues. ICLEI is a global network of 1,500 cities, towns and regions in 108 countries and a partner in the CCAC.

ICLEI recommends tackling climate change mitigation and air pollution following an integrated approach, where many actions can benefit both air quality and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, benefiting the community.

Ms van Staden called for cities to join the Breathelife campaign, a new initiative by the World Health Organization and CCAC, that encourages cities to take viable actions to reduce air pollution for health and the climate.

Mobility, a source of solutions to tackle climate change

The CCAC also participated in a forum led by the Cooperation for urban mobility in the developing world (CODATU) that looked at ways to deliver growing demand for transport and mobility while reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the sector.

The forum presented the current situation, the efforts still to be made, examples of existing good practices and initiatives from the Global Climate Action Agenda (GCAA) that are currently being undertaken and need support to scale up.

The transport sector is now responsible for nearly 28% of all energy-related greenhouse gas emissions in the world. Urban mobility needs are growing and with two-third of the humanity predicted to be living in cities by 2050, travel demand and its related GHG emissions are likely to explode if nothing is done.

Current urban lifestyles also imply a dramatic increase in freight transport, which represents more and more traffic, in particular in emerging cities. In that context, urban and sub-urban mobility are not only a major challenge for cities, but also for countries, both from the North and the South if they want to reduce their global emissions and/or prevent a dramatic increase in emissions.

The forum heard that shifting toward a sustainable mobility that is inclusive and accessible for all is not only feasible, but also much less costly than current car-oriented mobility, and that the transport sector is engaged to accelerate this shift.

The CCAC presented the Global Green Freight Program, one of the commitments announced at the UN Climate Summit in Sept 2014 in New York and also the Lima-Paris Action Agenda at COP21 in December 2015 in Paris.

The Action Plan calls on governments, private sector, civil society, and other actors to work in concert to:

1) Align and enhance existing green freight efforts

2) Develop and support new green freight programs

3) Incorporate black carbon reductions into green freight programs

The Global Green Freight Action Plan is supported by 24 governments and 32 non-state organisations and companies including DHL, HP, IKEA and Volvo.