Why we need to act now?

It is not enough to act. We have to act now.

Delayed efforts to mitigate either carbon dioxide or short-lived climate pollutant emissions will have negative, and potentially irreversible, consequences for global warming, rising sea levels, agricultural yields, and public health.

Due to their relatively short lifetime in the atmosphere, ranging from a few days to a few decades, short-lived climate pollutants respond very quickly to reduction efforts. If fast and widespread action is taken to reduce these pollutants, it is likely that we could cut methane emissions by 25% and black carbon by 75%, and eliminate high-global warming potential hydrofluorocarbons altogether in the next 25 years.

The practices and technologies needed to reduce short-lived climate pollutant emissions are accessible today and if quickly implemented can:

• Avoid an estimated 2.4 million premature deaths from outdoor air pollution annually by 2030
• Prevent as much as 52 million tonnes of crop losses per year
• Slow the increase in near-term global warming by as much as 0.6°C by 2050
• Prevent climate tipping points that can exacerbate long-term climate impacts and make adapting to climate change harder, especially for the poor and most vulnerable