US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced Thursday the formation of a new international coalition to reduce short-lived pollutants that speed up climate change and harm health. Clinton said the coalition of the United States, Bangladesh, Canada, Mexico, Sweden and Ghana will launch a drive to fight soot, methane and hydro fluorocarbons that contribute disproportionately to climate change.
"This coalition, the first international effort of its kind, will conduct a targeted, practical and highly energetic global campaign to spread solutions to the short-lived pollutants world-wide," Clinton told an audience at the State Department that included envoys from the five other countries. "It will mobilise resources, assemble political support, help countries develop and implement a national action plan, raise public awareness, and reach out to other countries, companies, NGOs and foundations."
Clinton said the pollutants that survive only a short time in the atmosphere - unlike longer-lasting carbon dioxide, the main climate change culprit - account nonetheless for more than a third of global warming. She said the UN Environment Program (UNEP), which will serve as the coalition's secretariat, has outlined 16 actions that can be taken to cut short-lived pollutants and slow global warming by 0.5 degree Celsius by 2050. US officials said methane comes from landfills, coal mines, from the oil and natural gas industry, agriculture, and cows.
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