Deccan Chronicle, AFP, Washington DC (United States) : Faulting the world
for not doing enough to curb climate change, the United States on Thursday announced the formation of a coalition to cut short-lived pollutants that speed up warming and harm health. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the coalition of the United States, Bangladesh, Canada, Mexico, Sweden and Ghana will launch a global drive to curb black carbon (soot), methane and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). The chief US diplomat said such pollutants survive only a short time in the atmosphere -- unlike long-lasting carbon dioxide, the main climate change culprit -- but account for more than a third of global warming. "We know that in the principal effort necessary to reduce
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for not doing enough to curb climate change, the United States on Thursday announced the formation of a coalition to cut short-lived pollutants that speed up warming and harm health. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the coalition of the United States, Bangladesh, Canada, Mexico, Sweden and Ghana will launch a global drive to curb black carbon (soot), methane and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). The chief US diplomat said such pollutants survive only a short time in the atmosphere -- unlike long-lasting carbon dioxide, the main climate change culprit -- but account for more than a third of global warming. "We know that in the principal effort necessary to reduce
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the effects of carbon dioxide, the world has not yet done enough," Clinton told an audience at the State Department that included envoys from the coalition countries. "So when we discover effective and affordable ways to reduce global warming -- not just a little, but by a lot -- it is a call to action for all of us," Clinton said. "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 worldwide," she added. "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." NGOs are non-governmental organizations that include environmental and other activist groups. She said the UN Environment Program, 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 degrees Celsius by 2050. The world's goal is to limit the rise in temperatures to two degrees Celsius by that date, she and US officials said. Read Full: Deccan Chronicle
