Canada's Environment Minister and international partners launch new global Climate and Clean Air initiative

WASHINGTON, D.C., Feb. 16, 2012 /CNW/ - Today, Canada's Environment Minister, the Honourable Peter Kent, alongside United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Environment Ministers from participating countries, launched a new global initiative aimed at making rapid progress on countering climate change and improving air quality. The new initiative, the Climate and Clean Air Coalition to Reduce Short-Lived Climate Pollutants, is composed of six participating countries—Bangladesh, Canada, Ghana, Mexico, Sweden and the United States—and supported by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

"This is an important alliance that will serve to reduce emissions, help counter climate change, and work towards delivering a global solution to this global problem," said Minister Kent. "Taking action on short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) will yield positive results in the near-term as we continue to make progress in our efforts to reduce emissions from longer-lived greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide."

It is estimated that SLCP emissions, such as methane, black carbon (soot), and tropospheric ozone, will contribute about half of the climate warming from current anthropogenic emissions over the next couple of decades. They have critical impacts on water cycle, crop yields, air quality and human health. This issue is of particular importance for Arctic countries, as black carbon has an additional warming effect when deposited on snow and ice.

For more information and to view a backgrounder on this announcement, please visit the Web site of Environment Canada at http://www.ec.gc.ca/.

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Adam Sweet
Press Secretary
Office of the Minister of the Environment
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Media Relations
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