Peru's Ministries of Energy and Environment join forces to reduce emissions of short-lived climate pollutants

In Peru, Short-Lived Climate Pollutants (SLCPs) are accelerating climate change, by melting glaciers in the Andes, and also have a negative impact on public health. In 2014 more than a thousand premature deaths were caused by emissions of particulate matter (PM₁₀) in the capital city, Lima. The costs for these premature deaths represent 0.5% of the National GDP and 0.9% of Lima's GDP.

Air pollution is an issue of national interest and Peru's energy and environment sectors are working together for the first time on an initiative to reduce SLCP emissions. One result of this alliance was an international workshop that brought together government representatives from Mexico, Chile and Peru to strengthen their knowledge and skills in the use of a tool that helps the planning of actions each country is leading.

Known as the Long Range Energy Alternatives Planning system-Integrated Benefits Calculator (or LEAP-IBC), the tool significantly contributes to each country's work by helping estimate the impacts of SLCP emissions on health (through estimation of premature deaths), crop loss and climate change.

With the support of the UN Environment, the Climate and Clean Air Coalition, the UN Development Programme and the Stockholm Environmental Institute, the workshop enhanced the capacity of government representatives to calculate the consequences of emissions and various scenarios to mitigate greenhouse gases and SLCPs.

Countries were able to find the convergence between the strategic actions they're taking and the use of the LEAP-IBC tool. The Ministry of the Environment of Mexico, for example, recognized that the scenarios provided by the LEAP-IBC tool can be used to create models of key sectors like electricity, energy and transport - fundamentally supporting mitigation efforts.

In Peru, a Coalition member since 2013, the government has created the Short Life Pollutants Unit, assigned to the General Directorate of Environmental Quality of the Ministry of the Environment. The Unit has been working on defining strategic national actions with support from UN Environment.

This includes the preparation of an SLCP emissions inventory and projections of pollution mitigation. The inventory was created using the LEAP-IBC tool, which has made it easier to model energy and emissions scenarios to identify links between energy planning, environmental policies, and greenhouse gas and SLCP mitigation

One of the lessons learned by Peru, and highlighted at the workshop, is the need to build strategic alliances with economic sectors and promote joint efforts to collect, manage information and prepare roadmaps that are necessary to establish mitigation goals.

Find out more about the LEAP-IBC toolkit and what it can do for you by clicking on the resource links below.

You can follow Peru's work on Twitter: @AireyClima_Peru