News
Publish date: September 3, 2013
News
Of particular significance will be a speech slated to be delivered by Norway’s state oil giant Statoil.
“We hope that Statoil’s speech today will be the beginning of a more open and transparent cooperation between the oil industry and NGOs,” Bellona President Frederic Hauge said.
The topic for today’s meeting at Oslo Plaza is how the world’s emissions of short-lived climate pollutants can be reduced.
Cutting these emissions is the main goal for Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC). Bellona is a member of CCAC – together with about 70 NGOs and 50 states. Bellona has been invited to speak at the meeting on behalf of the international NGO community.
“This coalition is a trust-building supplement to the UN Climate negotiations,” Hauge said.
The ministerial meeting, in Hauge’s estimation, creates a favorable atmosphere for achieving reduced emissions of short lived greenhouse gasses.
“We have focused on emissions from the buring of agriculture waste in Russia. However, we also want to cut emissions of methane and soot from the oil industry,” Hauge said.
“Bellona is eager to see an oil and gas initiative getting started under CCAC, and we will certainly contribute to its success,” Hauge added.
His hope is that Statoil’s presentation at today’s meeting will be the beginning of a more open cooperation between civil society and the oil and gas industry.
Fast action to reduce short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) that “live” from days up to a couple of decades in the atmosphere, has the potential to prevent millions of premature deaths each year, avoid annual crop losses of some of the world’s staple crops and slow down the warming expected by 2050 by as much as half a degree.
The CCAC is a voluntary partnership uniting governments, intergovernmental organizations, civil society and the private sector in the first global effort to treat short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) as a collective challenge.
Launched in February 2012, the Coalition has grown to 66 partners, including 32 countries, the European Commission and 33 non-state organizations. CCAC partners have launched major initiatives aimed to scale-up activities on the ground to spark significant emission reductions of SLCPs.
The Ministerial High Level Assembly for The Climate and Clean Air Coalition to Reduce Short-Lived Climate Pollutants is being held in Oslo, today.
Participation is by special invitation only. The High Level Assembly will bring together Ministers and heads of CCAC partner institutions to direct the Coalition’s work in significantly bolstering financing for SLCP mitigation and better mainstreaming the SLCP agenda into the health community and its key institutions. The High Level Assembly will also focus the spotlight on the latest science on SLCPs and the potential health, food security and climate benefits of their reductions to help inform transformational national decisions and global actions through the CCAC and beyond.
The Coalition is government-led and country partners play a central role in deciding on, and supporting, the Coalition’s activities. By joining the Climate and Clean Air Coalition to Reduce Short-Lived Climate Pollutants, country partners have committed to mitigating short-lived climate pollutants in their own countries, helping others take similar actions, and to actively participating in the work of the Coalition.
Partners:
Australia
Bangladesh
Benin
Canada
Central African Republic
Chile
Colombia
Cote d’Ivoire
Denmark
Dominican Republic
Ethiopia
Finland
France
Germany
Ghana
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Japan
Jordan
Mexico
Netherlands
New Zealand
Nigeria
Norway
Peru
Poland
Republic of Korea
Republic of Maldives
Sweden
Switzerland
United Kingdom
United States of America
The European Commission
Bellona Foundation
Caucasus Environmental NGO Network
Center for Clean Air Policy
Center for Human Rights and Environment
Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities, Inc.
Clean Air Institute
Clean Air Task Force
Climate Market Investment Association (CMIA)
ClimateWorks Foundation
Earthjustice
Environmental Defense Fund
Environmental Investigation Agency
EvK2CNR Committee
Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves
Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies
Institute for Global Environmental Strategies
Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development
International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development
International Climate Change Partnership (ICCP)
International Council on Clean Transportation
International Cryosphere Climate Initiative
International Institute for Sustainable Development
International Solid Waste Association (ISWA)
International Union of Air Pollution Prevention and Environmental Protection Associations (IUAPPA)
Molina Center for Strategic Studies in Energy and the Environment
Natural Resources Defense Council
Regional Environmental Center
Stockholm Environment Institute
Swiss Foundation for Technical Cooperation (Swisscontact)
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)
World Bank
For more information, see: http://www.unep.org/newsletters/ccac/2013_06.html
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