Reduce soot emissions
CO2 is the biggest man-made climate sinner, but did you know that soot emissions are among the most important contributors to global warming?
Small particles of soot, often called black carbon, are formed naturally by forest fires. But it is human activity that leads to the largest soot emissions through burning coal, oil and biomass. It is especially shipping, trucks, coal-fired power plants, factories and traditional cooking with coal, charcoal or firewood that emits soot into the atmosphere. This has become an extremely serious problem that is attracting the attention of researchers all over the world.
Soot contributes to global warming in two ways. The black particles absorb heat from the sun’s rays and heat the atmosphere, which in turn heat up the earth. When soot settles on glaciers, the sun’s rays are absorbed by the soot rather than the glacier reflecting the rays back into the atmosphere again. Thus the soot contributes to both ice melting and to atmospheric warming.
In contrast to CO2 which remains in the atmosphere and contributes to global warming for several decades, soot is washed out of the atmosphere by rain after just a few days or weeks. In other words, by cutting soot emissions global warming can be reduced far more quickly than by reducing CO2 emissions. After a few weeks the heating effect of the soot will decrease.
Technically, it is not difficult to reduce soot emissions. Modern trucks, coal-fired power stations and factories have minimal or no soot emissions and direct burning of coal or wood in traditional cooking can be replaced by cleaner alternatives. The challenge is that modern technology is often unavailable in developing countries where soot emissions are greatest. It is therefore important that rich countries give developing countries economic and technological support for measures that can reduce soot emissions. Reduction of soot emissions is one of the low hanging fruits in the battle for the climate, and soot emissions can be reduced by 50 percent by 2030.
