The climate impacts of current black carbon and organic carbon emissions (2 reports)

These reports present a summary of recent research into the climate impact of black and organic carbon. There have been many developments on the research front in recent years, and this rapid pace is expected to continue. The strength of the climate impacts of black and organic carbon is governed by the amount of emissions, how long the aerosols remain suspended in the air after emission, and how effective their various climate interactions are. Current estimates of annual emissions of both black and organic carbon are higher than they were a few years ago. Black carbon is currently estimated to have only a moderate global warming effect, but may have a stronger influence on regional temperatures and precipitation. Organic carbon emissions are still estimated to have a moderately cooling effect.