In her visit to Helsinki in Finland today, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton officially welcomed Finland as the newest partner of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition.
In her remarks at the Climate Clean Air Coalition and Green Embassy Event, Ms. Clinton says the partnership was launched in February to reduce those short-lived climate pollutants, including the methane, black carbon, hydrofluorocarbons.
She notes those pollutants are responsible for more than 30 percent of current global warming and have a disproportionate impact on the Arctic for a variety of reasons, but in particular because of the hastening of the melting of the ice.
“Now because these pollutants are harmful to health and to agriculture, we can actually save and improve millions of lives and avoid the loss of millions of tons of crops by acting now.” -Ms. Clinton
She notes that when she started this coalition back in February, it was both developed countries and developing, along with the United Nations’ UNEP, which has done some of the groundbreaking research about why these short-lived pollutants are so important in the fight against global warming.
She cites the Coalition iscreating an advisory panel to ensure that coalition efforts are guided by cutting-edge science.
She pointed out that just last week, at the sustainability conference, Rio+20, the coalition launched a new initiative to reduce methane and other pollutants from landfills.
The Coalition has encouraged and enlisted mayors from several major world cities.
“We also have the World Bank on board, and other countries are joining.” -Ms. Clinton
All of the G-8 countries recently signed up to the coalition at the last meeting, she noted.
In partnership with the UN Environment and Development Programs, the European Commission, and key private sector companies, Ms. Clinton states the Coalition is co-hosting a conference in Bangkok this July to showcase new technologies that can drastically reduce the need for HFCs in refrigeration and air conditioning.
She underlines that Finland is such a leader in clean technology, including clean diesel.
The US thinks Finland, in particular, has a great economic opportunity coming out of this coalition.
She notes that the coalition on short-lived pollutants does not replace the crucial work they have to do on the broader range of climate change.
“So I’m excited to welcome you into this coalition, looking forward to working closely with you.” -Ms. Clinton
She stresses that it’s fair to say that the world sees clean energy, clean tech as the future not only for Finland and for the United States, but really the future for the kind of world all are trying to create.
In February this year, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton also announced a new global initiative called the Climate and Clean Air Coalition to Reduce Short-Lived Climate Pollutants.
The coalition will seize the opportunity of realizing concrete benefits on climate, health, food and energy resulting from reducing short-lived climate pollutants.
The founding coalition partners are Bangladesh, Canada, Ghana, Mexico, Sweden, and the United States, together with the UN Environment Programme.
The focus of the new initiative is to curb methane, black carbon, and hydrofluorocarbons.
The coalition has listed and discussed a set of 16 major actions that could be taken either on black carbon or methane, which could have quite striking effects with respect to global warming.
The coalition is going to be aimed at action, at attracting high-level political support, mobilizing resources, catalyzing and helping to drive the implementation. I guess the development first, and then the
