Arctic Council targets black carbon

- Finally, this topic is put on the international political agenda, Andreas Stohl at NILU, Norwegian institute for air research said. He is the project manager for the IPY project POLARCAT.
POLARCAT studies the transport of pollutants and climate forcing agents into the Arctic.

- Targeting these climate agents is without doubt the most efficient effort for reducing the melting ice in the Arctic. They are all potent but short-lived climate agents. Black carbon is just as important for the climate situation in the Arctic as CO2, but whereas CO2 stays in the athmosphere for almost a hundred years, black carbon goes away in a couple of weeks, Andreas Stohl says.

Task Force at work
The Arctic Council decided last week to form a Task Force to report to the Council on mitigation measures for these short-lived climate forcers. The vote culminated a year-long process of investigation by the Council's scientific arm, AMAP, of key non-CO2 drivers of Arctic climate change and ice melt.

Specific recommendations from the September 2008 AMAP meeting targeted spring agricultural burning, identification of other sources or black carbon impacting Arctic climate, and expansion of methane reduction efforts, worldwide.

Photo: NILU


Important effort
Black carbon emissions from fossil fuel, bio fuel and wood burning are major contributors to global warming. Black carbon emissions have a large effect on radiation transmission in the troposphere, both directly and indirectly via clouds, and also reduce the snow and ice albedo.

Black carbon is claimed to be the second largest contributor to global warming. Thus, reducing black carbon emission represents the most efficient effort for mitigating global warming as we know today.

Data Workshop
The first POLARCAT data workshop that will bring together all the project participants will be held from 2-5 June, 2009 at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, New Hamsphire.

- The Arctic Council decision is based on solid scientific work, but uncertainties and questions remain. The work presented at the POLARCAT meeting will undoubtedly benefit the continuing Arctic Council process by providing more robust results for the governments to develop mitigation efforts that have the highest likelihood of benefiting Arctic climate, Stohl said.

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