Protecting the Arctic

16. Securing rapid reductions in near-term warming in areas of particular climatic sensitivity such as the Arctic is therefore integral to preventing runaway climate change that could influence global climate systems for millenia:

"Cutting the short-lived forcers is not a substitute for cutting CO2, which controls long-term climate temperature. But if we don't cut the non-CO2 forcers now and slow the rate of warming in the next few decades, we risk passing tipping points for abrupt and catastrophic climate impact." [8]

17. The disintegration of the Arctic is also opening up new commercial possibilities, which will make the Arctic region even more vulnerable to black carbon. In particular, the appearance of new shipping routes brings significant risks of additional and accelerated black carbon deposition on Arctic snow from shipping emissions. International shipping is a comparatively poorly regulated sector for particulate matter emissions. On some estimates, black carbon and other emissions from shipping in the Arctic may increase by as much as a factor of two or three by 2050 unless control measures are put in place. [9] Increasing industrial activity, especially oil and gas extraction, has the potential to increase black carbon emissions within the Arctic itself.

Reducing black carbon emissions can achieve rapid climate change mitigation and slow the rate of Arctic melting

18. While black carbon poses a serious threat to the Arctic, controlling it has the potential to achieve rapid climate change mitigation and slow the rate of Arctic melting.

19. An important distinction between CO2 (a gas) and black carbon (a particle) is that black carbon has a short atmospheric lifespan. Whereas greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide can remain in the atmosphere for centuries after they are released, black carbon remains in the atmosphere for only a matter of days or weeks. This means that cutting black carbon emissions can lead to almost immediate climate change mitigation. By contrast, reductions in emissions of CO2 will not have any effect on global climate for decades. As one leading black carbon expert writes, "If emissions of black carbon are shut off, its warming will be stopped within a few days. This makes it a powerful tool to address warming quickly." [1]

20. Two recent studies have concluded that rapid action to address black carbon and other near-term climate forcers would reduce projected warming in the Arctic by approximately two thirds over the next 30 years. [2] [3]

21. These studies identified several measures for reducing black carbon and other near-term climate forcers, from transport, residential, industrial and agricultural sectors, including:

· Widespread retrofitting of diesel particulate filters to on and off road diesel engines

· Particulate filters or other black carbon control measures (such as slide valves) for shipping

· Clean-burning residential wood/biomass stoves

· Improvements in a limited number of stationary installations such as clean-burning brick kilns and coke ovens

· Improved enforcement of, and additional banning of land and agricultural waste burning, or limiting burning season to avoid highly sensitive spring melt of Arctic

· Scrapping high emitting older diesel engines

· Greater controls for gas flaring.

22. If combined with substantial cuts in CO2 emissions, implementation of these measures would have a high probability of holding the world to 2 degrees of warming over the next 60 years. By contrast, reductions in CO2 emissions alone are unlikely to hold temperature increases to 2 degrees. [4]

23. It is important to stress that reducing emissions of near-term climate forcers is not a substitute for CO2 reductions. Eventual ‘peak warming’ for the planet depends ultimately on the accumulation of concentrations of long-lived greenhouse gases such as CO2. Concerted action on black carbon and other short-lived climate forcers should therefore be regarded as an ‘emergency brake’ to help buy critical time in the coming decades to transition to a low-carbon economy while avoiding potentially irreversible tipping points.

Reducing black carbon emissions will also have significant co-benefits for human health

24. In addition to its impacts on climate, black carbon also has a direct impact on human health. Black carbon is a component of particulate matter, which the UK government estimate contributes to 29,000 premature deaths each year in the UK. [1] Exposure to particulate matter contributes to a range of chronic diseases and other health impacts including respiratory and cardiovascular disease, asthma, impaired lung development in children, low birth weight and premature birth. The health impacts of air pollution in the UK were fully documented in the Environmental Audit Committee’s March 2010 report on air quality and subsequent follow up report published in October 2011.

25. Black carbon is increasingly understood to be the component of particulate matter of most concern from a health point of view. This is because black carbon tends to be emitted as fine particulate matter. Finer particles are thought to be especially damaging to human health because they are so small that they can pass deep into the respiratory system, carrying with them toxic material.

26. Reducing emissions of black carbon will therefore have significant co-benefits for human health. The health benefits of such reductions will mainly occur locally i.e. in the UK. When these co-benefits are considered within cost analyses, as well as efficiency gains from some measures, there is good evidence to suggest that most black carbon actions will see benefits outweigh costs. [2]

E xisting legal and policy frameworks neglect or control b lack carbon

27. The growing consensus within climate science over the importance of black carbon is starting to be recognised in a number of recent initiatives at the international level. However, the importance of black carbon is still not adequately reflected in UK and EU climate law and policy, which remains predominantly focused on CO2.

International/regional level

28. Over the past three years, black carbon has begun to receive increasing attention in various international forums.

29. Black carbon is not currently included in the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the main international legal instrument governing climate change. However, it is expected be included in international air pollution law for the first time later this year. The UNECE Convention on Long Range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP) is the main international legal instrument governing air pollution. There are 51 parties to the Convention, including all the EU member states and the EU, the US, Canada and Russia. The Gothenburg Protocol to the CLRTAP requires parties to keep national emissions of air pollutants within agreed limits or ceilings. It also sets emission limit values for specific sources of these pollutants such as transport and power generation.

30. The executive body to the CLRTAP established an ad-hoc expert working group on black carbon in 2010, which has already produced reports recommending action on black carbon. Negotiations are underway on a revision of the Gothenburg Protocol, with a revised text expected to be adopted in May 2012. It is expected that the revised protocol will, for the first time, set ceilings for emissions of particulate matter. If these ceilings are set at an ambitious level, they should drive reductions in emissions of both particulate matter and black carbon. The current draft text specifically references black carbon, encouraging parties to seek reductions in particulate matter from source categories known to emit high proportions of black carbon and requiring parties to keep inventories of national black carbon emissions.

31. The International Maritime Organisation has been examining the Arctic and climate impacts of black carbon for a few years but has so far failed to introduce any binding measures to control it.

32. The Arctic Council of Nations is a high level intergovernmental forum to promote cooperation between Arctic nations and peoples. It consists of the eight Arctic States: Canada, Denmark (including Greenland and the Faroe Islands), Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States, together with six international organisations representing Arctic Indigenous Peoples, who have permanent participant status. [1] The UK has permanent observer status. The Arctic Council recently established a task force for black carbon containment demonstration projects, and has discussed adopting a regional instrument to tackle black carbon. [2]

EU level

33. EU climate and air quality legislation does not currently address black carbon. On 14 September 2011 the European Parliament passed a resolution calling for the EU to take urgent action to address non-CO2 climate forcers, including black carbon:

"9. Urges immediate action towards the reduction of black carbon emissions as a fast-action method of halting glacial melting, giving priority to emissions that affect regions of snow and ice, including the Arctic, Greenland and the Himalayan-Tibetan glaciers;

10. Calls upon the EU to promote existing technologies that drastically reduce black carbon emissions; further urges that regulations banning slash-and-burn tactics in forests, enforcing stringent and regular vehicle emissions tests, limiting biomass burning and monitoring the annual emissions of power plants must be supported and encouraged;" [3]

34. EU climate policy is focussed predominantly on CO2 reductions, almost to the exclusion of all other climate forcers. The EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is a primary driver of climate emissions reductions in the traded sectors of the economy, yet in most instances it only covers CO2 emissions. In the non-traded sectors, including transport, GHG reductions are covered by sectoral rules or national measures. Very few climate measures exist to encourage reductions in methane, nitrous oxide or tropospheric ozone (other short-term climate forcers), and black carbon has barely been mentioned in DG Climate Action’s policies or roadmaps to date.

35. EU air quality policy does not directly regulate black carbon. It indirectly and weakly supports reductions of black carbon emissions through controls on particulate matter. EU air quality policy is implemented by two types of legislation: legislation that controls emissions of air pollutants from various sources, and legislation that regulates concentrations of air pollutants (air quality).

36. The main control over emissions of air pollutants is the National Emission Ceilings Directive (the NECD). The NECD implements the EU’s obligations under the Gothenburg Protocol, by setting ceilings on overall national emissions of certain air pollutants. It does not currently regulate black carbon or even particulate matter.

37. Sectoral EU legislation regulates emissions of air pollution from certain source categories, such as industry, road vehicles, non-road machinery and shipping. However, these standards are too low and would need to be tightened significantly in order to capture the scale of feasible black carbon reductions. The Commission has repeatedly voiced its frustration that member states continue to block new proposed legislation which would increase the ambition of these emissions reductions.

38. A further problem with emission standards for road vehicles and non-road machinery is that they only apply to new vehicles and machines. Reducing emissions from older vehicles and machinery therefore relies on fleet and machinery turnover, which can be slow as the most polluting vehicles and machinery often have a long service life (for example the average age of the rolling stock on the UK's railways is nearly 20 years). Without new regulation or action to force retrofit of emissions abatement equipment, it will take decades to clean up the most polluting vehicles and machines.

39. The Ambient Air Quality Directive sets legally binding limits on concentrations of pollutants in outdoor air, to protect human health and the environment. It sets several different limits for particulate matter but no specific limits for black carbon. The current limits are widely breached in urban areas throughout the EU. Full compliance with the Ambient Air Quality Directive would lead to significant reductions in emissions of black carbon.

40. The European Commission has designated 2013 as the "Year of Clean Air", with both the NECD and Ambient Air Quality Directive scheduled for revision. The revision of the NECD will reflect the changes to the Gothenburg Protocol which are currently being negotiated. There is unlikely to be much political will for the revised NECD to go much further than the revised Gothenburg Protocol in terms of the level of the ceilings for particulate matter.

41. However, it may be possible for the NECD to optimise black carbon benefits by requiring member states to specifically target black carbon within their overall obligation to reduce particulate emissions. The main significance of the NECD is its role in driving further legislation to tackle emissions from specific sectors, such as transport and industry. By focusing new sectoral legislation on those sources with high proportions of black carbon emissions and setting ambitious emissions standards, the EU can optimise climate and air quality benefits.

42. The revision of the Ambient Air Quality Directive will involve a reconsideration of the limits for various pollutants. The Commission wants to adopt more stringent limits for particulate matter, especially fine particulate matter. However, there are concerns that several member states, including the UK, will resist more ambitious limits, call for weakening of some limits, and will lobby the Commission to allow for derogations from the revised directive’s obligations. There is therefore a significant risk that instead of optimising black carbon mitigation, the revision of the Ambient Air Quality Directive could reduce rather than optimise black carbon co-benefits.

43. Other important EU law reforms include the inclusion of international maritime shipping within the EU’s greenhouse gas reduction commitment. This represents an opportunity to consider complementary actions on black carbon.

44. Small scale combustion, residential heating and some small scale industrial applications also represent gaps in EU regulation of particulate matter and black carbon.

National level

45. The UK Climate Change Act 2008 commits the UK to legally binding reductions of the six greenhouse gases covered by the Kyoto Protocol. In practice, UK climate policy is heavily focussed on CO2 reductions. Black carbon is not regulated by the Climate Change Act or in any of DECC’s climate policies and some climate policies may actually increase black carbon emissions.

46. The UK Government's Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) is expected to hugely increase the number of biomass burning installations across the UK. Due to air quality concerns, weak emission limits for biomass plants supported by the RHI will be introduced during 2012. However, the required standard for particulate matter has been set at a level (30 grams per Gigajoule) at which most current biomass plants can comply. Biomass boilers will usually substitute for natural gas boilers, which have much lower average particulate matter emissions (0.5 g per Gigajoule). Filter equipment suitable for the smaller biomass plants likely to be supported by the RHI is now available. This can reduce particulate matter and black carbon emissions to very low levels. However, without a requirement in the RHI to use this equipment it is highly unlikely to be fitted.

14 February 2012