{"id":159,"date":"2010-06-29T10:41:24","date_gmt":"2010-06-29T15:41:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/?p=159"},"modified":"2012-01-31T15:46:46","modified_gmt":"2012-01-31T20:46:46","slug":"domestic-mitigation-of-black-carbon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/2010\/06\/29\/domestic-mitigation-of-black-carbon\/","title":{"rendered":"Domestic Mitigation of Black Carbon"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

by Hannah Chang<\/em><\/p>\n

Black carbon (\u201cBC\u201d), a component of soot and particulate matter, competes closely\u00a0with methane as the largest anthropogenic contributor to global warming after carbon dioxide.\u00a0BC emissions primarily result from four sources: burning of residential fuels such as wood and\u00a0coal; open burning of land, whether natural or human-induced; diesel engines; and industrial\u00a0processes, such as small boilers. One pound of BC is estimated to cause 700 times as much\u00a0warming as one pound of carbon dioxide.<\/p>\n

BC mitigation has been identified by some as the \u201clowest hanging of the low-hanging fruit\u201d \u2013 an affordable, politically feasible, fast-action means to mitigate the warming\u00a0temperatures caused by climate change. For one thing, BC can be mitigated both domestically\u00a0and internationally by affordable technologies that already exist, such as diesel particulate filters\u00a0and more efficient cookstoves. Additionally, such mitigation has nearly immediate effects, as\u00a0BC remains in the atmosphere for mere days or weeks, in contrast to carbon dioxide, which\u00a0remains in the atmosphere for a century or more.<\/p>\n

Moreover, because BC has distinct local and regional impacts, its mitigation has\u00a0tremendous public health and environmental co-benefits. Locally, exposure to the fine particles\u00a0in soot produced from cookstoves, coal combustion, and diesel engines is associated with\u00a0premature mortality from heart and lung disease. The World Health Organization estimates that\u00a0indoor air pollution from cooking and residential heating causes 1.6 million premature deaths\u00a0each year. Diesel particulate emissions are estimated to lead to over 21,000 premature deaths\u00a0in the United States in 2010. Regionally, BC interacts with other aerosols to form \u201catmospheric\u00a0brown clouds,\u201d or hotspots of atmospheric solar heating, that have been identified in South Asia,\u00a0eastern China, most of Southeast Asia, regions of Africa, Mexico and Central America, and parts\u00a0of South America. Additionally, BC is swept only a relatively short distance from its source\u00a0before falling out of the atmosphere where its absorption of sunlight contributes to rapid melting\u00a0of any ice or snow on which it lands. Arctic sea ice is melting as much as a result of regional BC\u00a0emissions as a result of warming caused by greenhouse gases, for instance, and BC is thought to\u00a0have caused about one-third of the glacial retreat in the Himalayas.<\/p>\n

In the United States, which contributes about 6% of the global total of BC\u00a0emissions, diesel engines are the primary source of black carbon. Although the United States is a\u00a0relatively small contributor to worldwide BC emissions, its per capita emissions are actually\u00a0comparable to those in developing regions where the vast majority of BC is emitted. CCCL has\u00a0posted a working paper available here<\/a>, that brings a narrow focus to domestic mitigation of black\u00a0carbon \u2013 outlining how emissions are and can be controlled under the Clean Air Act and\u00a0identifying one way in which municipalities and states can contribute to mitigation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Hannah Chang Black carbon (\u201cBC\u201d), a component of soot and particulate matter, competes closely\u00a0with methane as the largest anthropogenic contributor to global warming after carbon dioxide.\u00a0BC emissions primarily result from four sources: burning of residential fuels such as wood and\u00a0coal; open burning of land, whether natural or human-induced; diesel engines; and industrial\u00a0processes, such as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":330,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5680],"tags":[9432,5692],"class_list":{"0":"post-159","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-clean-energy","7":"tag-energy","8":"tag-mitigation","9":"czr-hentry"},"yoast_head":"\nDomestic Mitigation of Black Carbon - 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