The current focus on the long-term global warming potential in climate policy-making runs the risk of mitigation options for short-lived climate pollutants being ignored, and tipping points being crossed. We outline how a more balanced perspective on long- and short-lived climate pollutants could become politically feasible.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Data availability
The datasets generated and analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon request.
References
Schmale, J., Shindell, D., von Schneidemesser, E., Chabay, I. & Lawrence, M. Nature 515, 335–337 (2014).
Bowerman, N. et al. Nat. Clim. Change 3, 1021–1024 (2013).
Shindell, D. et al. Science 335, 183–189 (2012).
Shindell, D. et al. Science 356, 493–494 (2017).
Steffen, W. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.18101411158 (2018).
Haines, A. et al. Nat. Clim. Change 7, 863–869 (2017).
Worden, J. R. et al. Nat. Commun. 8, 1–11 (2017).
Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR, 2016); http://edgar.jrc.ec.europa.eu/gallery.php?release=v42&substance=CH4§or=TOTALS.
Edwards, M. R. & Trancik, J. E. Nat. Clim. Change 4, 347–352 (2014).
Ocko, I. B. et al. Science 356, 492–493 (2017).
Victor, D. G., Zaelke, D. & Ramanathan, V. Nat. Clim. Change 5, 796–798 (2015).
Myhre, G. et al. in Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis (eds Stocker, T. F. et al.) Ch. 8 (IPCC, Cambridge Univ. Press, 2013).
Unger, N. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 107, 3382–3387 (2010).
Samset, B. H. Science 360, 148–150 (2018).
Matthews, H. D. & Zickfeld, K. Nat. Clim. Change 2, 338–341 (2012).
Samset, B. H. et al. Geophys. Res. Lett. 45, 1020–1029 (2018).
Rubin, E. S., Azevedo, I. M. L., Jaramillo, P. & Yeh, S. Energy Policy 86, 198–218 (2015).
Schmidt, T. S. & Sewerin, S. Nat. Energy 2, 170–84 (2017).
Sand, M. et al. Nat. Clim. Change 6, 286–289 (2016).
Keohane, R. O. & Victor, D. G. Nat. Clim. Change 6, 570–575 (2016).
Weber, E. U. WIREs Clim. Change 7, 125–134 (2016).
Lenton, T. M. Nat. Clim. Change 1, 201–209 (2011).
Edwards, M. R. et al. Faraday Discuss. 200, 453–474 (2017).
Acknowledgements
L.P.F. acknowledges financial support from the EU ERC (grant no. 295456).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Fesenfeld, L.P., Schmidt, T.S. & Schrode, A. Climate policy for short- and long-lived pollutants. Nature Clim Change 8, 933–936 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0328-1
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0328-1
- Springer Nature Limited
This article is cited by
-
Spatial and temporal evolution and drivers of GHG emissions from urban domestic wastewater treatment in China: a review at the provincial level
Environmental Science and Pollution Research (2024)
-
Social cost of household emissions: cross-country comparison across the economic development spectrum
Environment, Development and Sustainability (2023)
-
Climate benefit of a future hydrogen economy
Communications Earth & Environment (2022)
-
Consequences of equivalency metric design for energy transitions and climate change
Climatic Change (2022)
-
Do methane emissions converge? Evidence from global panel data on production- and consumption-based emissions
Empirical Economics (2022)