Super Pollutant Newsletter: January 2026

This month’s newsletter highlights a selection of success stories from our 2025 Annual Report that showcase what CCAC achieved over an eventful year.

In 2025, the Coalition scaled up action across sectors and regions, supporting 23 additional countries and 59 additional organisations, translating ambition into on-the-ground results. The year also marked a major milestone with the launch of the Super Pollutant Country Action Accelerator, strengthening support for countries to deliver faster, deeper emissions reductions.

Read on for a snapshot of the Annual Report or visit our website to explore the full report.

2025 at a glance

Grew the partnership to 102 State Partners and 104 non-State Partners, representing approximately 70% of global super pollutant emissions | About our partners
23 additional countries and 59 additional organisations are receiving CCAC funding since 2024 | Explore our project portfolio
Launch of the Super Pollutant Country Action Accelerator, marking a shift from planning to delivery | About the Accelerator
Global Methane Status Report 2025, providing the latest global assessment of methane emissions and mitigation opportunities | Read the report
Built global capacity for air quality management with AQMx including additional sector guidance | Explore AQMs

Message from the CCAC Co-Chairs

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As Co-Chairs of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition, we present the CCAC’s 2025 Annual Report at a time when the world increasingly understands that reducing super pollutants, the world’s climate emergency brake, is essential to protect communities already facing extreme heat, air pollution, and climate-driven losses. From the families living with dangerous air pollution to farmers losing crops to extreme heat and drought, the impacts are immediate and widespread. This past year showed that countries are no longer treating super pollutants as a technical issue, but as a practical pathway to protect lives, food security, and economic stability — and importantly alongside deep cuts in CO2.

When the Coalition was created in 2012 by 6 countries, the goal was clear: to accelerate fast, practical action on super pollutants at a time when these issues were largely overlooked. Since then, the CCAC has evolved from a small coalition into a global community of more than 200 countries, international organizations, and civil society partners, united by trust, scientific rigor, and a shared commitment to cooperation across sectors.

Over more than a decade, this partnership has steadily moved super pollutants from the margins of climate policy into the center of global attention. The CCAC’s science-to-policy model has helped shape national planning, inform investment priorities, and guide action across agriculture, waste, energy, cooling, transport, and cities. This past year made that shift especially clear. Super pollutants featured prominently in major political discussions, with the G20 elevating air quality as a shared priority and the G7 identifying methane reductions as a central pillar of near-term climate action. Super pollutants are now firmly part of global climate and development conversations; a level of visibility that has helped set the stage for the decisive progress achieved in 2025.

This year, the Coalition released the Global Methane Status Report. It offers the most authoritative view to date of methane emissions, policy progress, and available solutions. Coming five years before the 2030 target year, it is designed to sustain focus, improve accountability, and anchor implementation across all major emitting sectors. New AQMx guidance released this year further supports countries by helping them integrate air quality management and climate mitigation into a single, coherent approach. This is increasingly important as governments seek solutions that deliver multiple benefits at once, improving public health while reducing emissions and strengthening national development priorities. The CCAC Annual Meeting in Brasília, held in March, added to this trajectory.

The momentum behind this agenda was unmistakable at COP30 in Belém. Under Brazil and the UK’s leadership as CCAC Co-Chairs, super pollutants featured prominently, with progress made on food systems, waste, energy, cooling, finance, and city action. The Methane and Other Non-CO2 Greenhouse Gases Summit, co-hosted by Brazil, China, and the United Kingdom, brought leaders together specifically to advance concrete solutions. This marked an important signal of how central super pollutant action has become to global climate efforts.

The major announcements in Belém illustrated the strength of long-standing CCAC collaboration. The launch of the Super Pollutant Country Action Accelerator creates a new mechanism to help countries move from commitment to implementation by strengthening institutions, adopting policies and regulations, and developing investment-ready pipelines. Drawing inspiration from the Montreal Protocol’s model for sustained, country-driven delivery, the Accelerator now requires the rapid mobilization of $150 million USD to support at least 30 countries by 2030 and unlock real, measurable progress this decade. This momentum was reinforced by the launch of the CCAC Farmers’ Initiative for Resilient and Sustainable Transformations, or FIRST, a coordinated effort to accelerate agricultural methane solutions across livestock and rice systems, alongside the United Kingdom’s Belém Declaration on Fertilisers, which commits to enhance nutrient efficiency and cleaner fertilizer production. Complementing these efforts, the No Organic Waste initiative (NOW!) will support countries working to reduce organic waste methane as part of broader national strategies. A United Kingdom led fossil fuel methane statement further advanced alignment on standards, transparency, and methane intensity.

Taken together, these milestones show how far this agenda has come. Thirteen years after its founding, the CCAC’s mission to reduce super pollutants for climate, health, and development benefits is now firmly embedded in the global response. The conversation has changed. The tools exist. The political alignment is growing. And the next phase must be defined by implementation.

Looking to 2026 and beyond, our priority is to help countries deliver. This means supporting robust national strategies, mobilizing finance at scale, accelerating access to proven technologies, and ensuring that the solutions showcased at COP30 reach the communities where they can have the greatest impact.

We extend our deep gratitude to all partners for their commitment, expertise, and collaboration. Together, we have built the foundation for transformative action. An upcoming economic assessment, scheduled for release in June next year, will further strengthen this work by identifying the most cost-effective pathways for countries to reduce super pollutants while advancing development goals. Now, we must turn the foundation we have built into measurable results.

2025 Project Case Studies

Brazil’s Leadership at a Turning Point in Global Climate Action

“This whole-of-government approach has also helped shape global action: Brazil’s interministerial model became the blueprint for the CCAC’s Super Pollutant Country Action Accelerator. When Brazil joined the CCAC in 2023 with an explicit mandate to cut SLCPs—and strong political backing to do so—the Coalition shifted from traditional project-by-project support to a coordinated, government-embedded model. In response to Brazil’s request, CCAC mobilized a comprehensive support package: USD 4.5 million for the development of the national SLCP plan and four linked sectoral projects, plus a dedicated in-house team of ten consultants (co-funded with the Global Methane Hub at roughly USD 500,000 over 18 months) charged with integrating SLCP mitigation into national climate and development planning ahead of COP30.” | Read more

Strategically Scaling Methane Mitigation in the Fossil Fuel Sector

“Fossil fuel use continues to grow and will remain a major part of energy systems for years to come, even as countries expand renewable alternatives. Cutting emissions from existing fossil fuel operations is therefore a CCAC priority to avoid unnecessary pollution during this transition and to help countries meet their wider sustainable development goals.”| Read more

Africa Clean Air Programme Drives Continental Action on Air Pollution

“The Africa Clean Air Programme (ACAP) is a flagship initiative to tackle air pollution by aligning health, climate, and development priorities across the continent. In 2025, ACAP has moved decisively toward implementation, achieving key milestones that lay the foundation for coordinated action at national and regional levels. A major achievement this year has been the completion of the ACAP Benchmarking Report, the first comprehensive assessment of air quality policy, institutional frameworks, and readiness across African countries. Being able to map the gap between policies and implementation, the report managed to develop a continental roadmap, which inputs were shared at the 2025 Africa Clean Air Summit in September 2025 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.” | Read more

Integrating Non-CO2 Pollutant Action into Countries’ NDCs 3.0

"At the request of governments, the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) expanded its support for NDC enhancement, focusing on practical, country-led integration of non-CO2 Pollutants into national climate commitments. This support responded directly to government-identified needs and builds on national priorities, existing policies, and institutional arrangements. In 2025, CCAC provided targeted guidance and provided hands-on technical assistance to governments seeking to strengthen the treatment of super pollutants in their NDC 3.0 submissions.” | R ead more

The Annual Report also includes:

Key results from CCAC’s global funding portfolio, including countries supported, projects delivered, and strategies adopted
Highlights from major political moments in 2025, including COP30, the G20, and G7, where super pollutants moved up the global agenda
The launch and rationale of the Super Pollutant Country Action Accelerator, marking a shift from planning to implementation
Insights from the Global Methane Status Report 2025
Analysis of how countries are strengthening super pollutant ambition in their NDCs under the Paris Agreement
Sector spotlights across agriculture, waste, fossil fuels, cooling, transport, and household energy
Progress on science–policy integration, including global assessments and strengthened analytical tools
CCAC governance updates, partner growth, and priority actions for the year ahead

Read the full Annual Report here

2025 Climate and Clean Air Coalition Ministerial

Ministers and non-state leaders of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) convened in Nairobi for the 2025 Annual Ministerial Meeting, held during the 7th United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-7), reaffirming the Coalition’s role as the global platform for accelerating action on super pollutants to deliver climate, clean air, and sustainable development benefits.

In a dedicated highlights segment, Ministers reflected on major progress on UNEA Resolution 6/10, “Promoting regional cooperation on air pollution to improve air quality globally,” and on the newly launched CCAC Super Pollutant Country Action Accelerator.

Events

2026 Better Air Quality (BAQ) conference

11 to 13 March 2026

Bangkok, Thailand

Clean Air Asia, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC), the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), present the 12th Better Air Quality conference (BAQ 2026). The theme for BAQ 2026, Together for Clear Skies: Driving Action, Accelerating Investment, calls for a collective progress on air quality across Asia and the Pacific. BAQ 2026 will convene a wider circle of stakeholders to shape and deliver better air quality outcomes to improve health and well-being and contribute to global climate goals, highlighting the importance of partnerships and investments to accelerate implementation of solutions on the ground.

Methane Action for People & Planet: From Discovery to Solutions

30 March - 2 April, 2026

European Commission - Joint Research Centre

Ispra, Italy

Join global leaders in methane science, policy, and innovation at the Methane Action for People & Planet: From Discovery to Solutions, hosted by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) in partnership with the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC), Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development (IGSD), Global Carbon Project (GCP), UNEP's International Methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO) and Spark Climate Solutions.

Scientific Papers

Global methane action pays for itself at least six times over.

Thomas Stoerk et al.

(Co-authored by the SAP, Drew Shindell)

This article provides a comprehensive assessment of the economic benefits and costs of global methane emissions abatement, anchored on the Global Methane Pledge. The article uses an integrated assessment model to estimate avoided climate damages at the global and country levels, including quantification of tipping points and risk. It further estimate air-quality co-benefits and methane abatement costs.

The article finds that global methane action would be highly beneficial, yielding a benefit-cost ratio of at least six. It would provide larger benefits in lower-income countries, and it would reduce tipping point intensity and risk. It provide estimates of the social cost of methane to compare with previous literature and show that these estimates imply that key economies, such as the United States, European Union, and China, should be self-interested to abate methane emissions substantially.

The influence of short-lived halogens on atmospheric chemistry and climate.

Saiz-Lopez, A. et al

(Co-authored by the SAP, A. R. Ravishankara)

Observations have demonstrated the ubiquity of short-lived halogens (SLHs)—defined as organic and inorganic chlorine, bromine and iodine compounds with an overall atmospheric lifetime of less than 6 months—in the global atmosphere. They are primarily emitted naturally from the ocean, cryosphere, volcanoes, salt lakes and the biosphere.

However, unregulated anthropogenic sources are increasingly contributing to their atmospheric loading. Some of their natural emissions have increased over time due to anthropogenic pollution, for example, the increased oceanic emissions of iodine compounds due to the deposition of ozone on the sea surface. SLHs affect chemical processes, such as ozone and methane chemistry, and therefore influence air quality and climate. Nevertheless, some of their sources and chemistry are not included in air-quality and climate models used in international assessment reports.

This article describes in detail the various impacts of SLHs on air quality and climate, and makes a case for the inclusion of more comprehensive SLH chemistry in future atmospheric, air-quality and climate assessments. In doing so, the article also identify gaps in the knowledge of SLH emissions, chemistry, and environmental and climate impacts.