Super Pollutant Day Showcases How Cutting All Climate Pollutants is Critical to Ensuring a Safe, Stable Climate

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- As the world gathers for the Global Climate Action Summit, tomorrow’s Super Pollutant Day will spotlight actions we can take now to bolster the reduction of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions with cuts in climate “super pollutants,” like methane, black carbon, and HFCs. Climate super pollutants stay in the atmosphere for a shorter amount of time than CO₂ (which is why they’re often called “short-lived climate pollutants”), but pound for pound, they have much higher warming potential and create adverse public health impacts globally. Fast mitigation of super pollutants can substantially slow the rate of warming, prevent an estimated 2.4 million premature deaths from outdoor air pollution annually by 2030, and reduce as much as 52 million tons of crop loss per year.

Super Pollutant Day at SFMOMA starts at 1 pm and will feature high-level panels with global participants, including:

• Pioneering California climate legislator, Fran Pavley;
• Tang Prize recipient and renowned climate scientist, Veerabhadran Ramanathan;
• Public Health and Environment Director of the World Health Organisation, María Neira; and,
• Executive Director of the Mexican Agency for Security, Energy, and Environment, Carlos de Regules.

These dignitaries and other speakers will present the scientific rationale for urgent action and the associated immediate benefits gained from reducing super pollutants along with carbon dioxide. They will discuss the significant commitments governments, the private sector, and civil society are making to reduce super pollutants—and opportunities on the horizon to take more aggressive action.

“Fast action on super pollutants along with carbon dioxide is essential to meeting our commitment to keep temperature change under 2 degrees Celsius,” said David Beckman, President of the Pisces Foundation, a co-sponsor of Tuesday’s event along with the Climate and Clean Air Coalition and the ClimateWorks Foundation. “We can move farther, faster in the climate fight by bolstering cuts of CO₂ with reductions of all pollutants driving climate change.”

Super Pollutant Day will culminate in a ceremony presenting the 2018 Climate and Clean Air Awards whose finalists include Leonardo DiCaprio, Nobel Prize Laureate Mario Molina, and other organizations and leaders committed to reducing super pollutants.

Super Pollutant Day will also feature the unveiling of “Super Swift,” a new pollutant-fighting superhero here to help us cut the super pollutants harming our climate and our health. She moves quickly to deploy solutions to reduce super pollutants like HFCs from air conditioners and refrigerators, methane from oil and gas production, and black carbon spewed from diesel trucks, buses, and ships.

The focus on a “fast-action” climate strategy that combines cuts of carbon dioxide with reductions in super pollutants continues at the Global Climate Action Summit later in the week. On Friday, the Summit will include a panel on Fast Mitigation: Super-Pollutant Solutions to Cut the Rate of Warming in Half.

For journalists who want more background on super pollutants and their role in solving the climate crisis, we recommend these resources:

• The Climate and Clean Air Coalition
• The State of California Short-Lived Climate Pollutant Strategy
• The Well Under 2 Degrees Celsius Report
• State summit is make or break for climate safety Op-Ed

And, we recommend these experts:

• Prof. Veerabhadran Ramanathan, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, vramanathan@ucsd.edu
• Durwood Zaelke, Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development (IGSD), zaelke@igsd.org
• Romina Picolotti, Center for Human Rights and Environment and IGSD, rpicolotti@gmail.com

About the Pisces Foundation:

The Pisces Foundation believes if we act now and boldly, we can quickly accelerate to a world where people and nature thrive together. Pisces mainstreams powerful new solutions to support innovators who know what it takes and are doing what’s necessary to have clean and abundant water, a safe climate, and kids with the environmental know-how to create a sustainable world. To learn more about Pisces’ work and collaborations visit: http://piscesfoundation.org/

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