A black-carbon mitigation wedge

Grieshop, Andrew P.; Reynolds, Conor C. O.; Kandlikar, Milind; Dowlatabadi, Hadi

doi:10.1038/ngeo595

Cited by 89 publications

(68 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…2 is above the red lines). The current ad-hoc proposal of shortening the time horizon alone (Bond and Sun 2005;Grieshop et al 2009;Moore and MacCracken 2009) is not a good way forward; the BC abatement needs to be addressed in concert with the overall goal.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Advocates of strong reductions in SLCFs open for the possibility of using GWPs with a 20-year time horizon (instead of the current 100-year time horizon) (Bond and Sun 2005;Grieshop et al 2009;Moore and MacCracken 2009), which leads to larger metric values for SLCFs (Forster et al 2007;Tanaka et al 2009;Fuglestvedt et al 2010). When one looks only at metrics, an obvious side effect of a shorter time horizon is that less emphasis is put on CO 2 abatement (Quinn et al 2008).…”

Section: Conceptmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On one hand, drastic emission cuts of SLCFs such as BC and/or CH 4 provide a near-immediate benefit to slow the global warming and also avoids adverse health impacts (Grieshop et al 2009). Increased efforts to mitigate BC are supported by a recent study (Ramanathan and Carmichael 2008) that suggests that the BC radiative forcing could be significantly higher than given by the IPCC (Forster et al 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Does black carbon abatement hamper CO 2 abatement?

2010

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Concerns have been raised that near-term black carbon abatement strategies for global warming mitigation would interfere with the longer-term CO 2 abatement efforts. In response, we put forward a "combined target and metric approach", a theoretical framework, in which the time horizon of the metric is linked to the specific target of the climate policy. In this approach, a shorter time horizon for the metric is justified only when the overall climate policy is tightened; the lower the target level of the climate policy, the earlier the year of the target. Employing a consistent time perspective for the metric and target means that enhanced near-term reduction of short-lived climate forcers does not reduce the importance of the CO 2 abatement, since the overall climate target is stricter.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Conceptmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Does black carbon abatement hamper CO 2 abatement?

2010

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“…Because mitigation of SLCFs could rapidly reduce climate warming, the possibility of decreasing them has engendered a flurry of interest (Hansen et al, 2000;Grieshop et al, 2009). SLCFs emitted from some locations also impact sensitive regions such as the Arctic (Quinn et al, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying immediate radiative forcing by black carbon and organic matter with the Specific Forcing Pulse

et al. 2011

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Abstract. Climatic effects of short-lived climate forcers (SLCFs) differ from those of long-lived greenhouse gases, because they occur rapidly after emission and because they depend upon the region of emission. The distinctive temporal and spatial nature of these impacts is not captured by measures that rely on global averages or long time integrations. Here, we propose a simple measure, the Specific Forcing Pulse (SFP), to quantify climate warming or cooling by these pollutants, where we define "immediate" as occurring primarily within the first year after emission. SFP is the amount of energy added to or removed from a receptor region in the Earth-atmosphere system by a chemical species, per mass of emission in a source region. We limit the application of SFP to species that remain in the atmosphere for less than one year. Metrics used in policy discussions, such as total forcing or global warming potential, are easily derived from SFP. However, SFP conveys purely physical information without incurring the policy implications of choosing a time horizon for the global warming potential.Using one model (Community Atmosphere Model, or CAM), we calculate values of SFP for black carbon (BC) and organic matter (OM) emitted from 23 source-region combinations. Global SFP for both atmosphere and cryosphere impacts is divided among receptor latitudes. SFP is usually greater for open-burning emissions than for energy-related (fossil-fuel and biofuel) emissions because of the timing of emission. Global SFP for BC varies by about 45% for energy-related emissions from different regions. This variation would be larger except for compensating effects. When emitted aerosol has larger cryosphere forcing, it often has lower atmosphere forcing because of less deep convection and a shorter atmospheric lifetime.Correspondence to: T. C. Bond (yark@illinois.edu) A single model result is insufficient to capture uncertainty. We develop a best estimate and uncertainties for SFP by combining forcing results from 12 additional models. We outline a framework for combining a large number of simple models with a smaller number of enhanced models that have greater complexity. Adjustments for black carbon internal mixing and for regional variability are discussed. Emitting regions with more deep convection have greater model diversity. Our best estimate of global-mean SFP is +1.03 ± 0.52 GJ g −1 for direct atmosphere forcing of black carbon, +1.15 ± 0.53 GJ g −1 for black carbon including direct and cryosphere forcing, and −0.064 (−0.02, −0.13) GJ g −1 for organic matter. These values depend on the region and timing of emission. The lowest OM:BC mass ratio required to produce a neutral effect on top-ofatmosphere direct forcing is 15:1 for any region. Any lower ratio results in positive direct forcing. However, important processes, particularly cloud changes that tend toward cooling, have not been included here.Global-average SFP for energy-related emissions can be converted to a 100-year GWP of about 740 ± 370 for BC without snow forcing, and ...

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“…Biomass, if harvested at a renewable rate can result in zero net emissions of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), though there are additional climate impacts from other climate warming PICs emitted during combustion such as methane (CH 4 ) and black carbon. Black carbon has been demonstrated to have very high warming impacts, reduction of which may result in significant climate and health benefits in the case of cookstoves (Grieshop et al 2009). In general, the cleaner burning the fuel, the higher the combustion efficiency, and the less fuel used for a given cooking task, the less climate forcing and health damaging PICs emitted.…”

Section: Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Carbon credits for cookstoves: Trade-offs in climate and health benefits

Freeman

Zerriffi²

2012

The Forestry Chronicle

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Cookstove projects have long been considered “win–win” development projects based on the multitude of benefits they can create. Carbon credits provide a new financing mechanism to fund such cookstove projects, but have been criticized as not always successfully meeting sustainable development goals. By drawing on previous literature this article critically looks at trade-offs between the maximization of climate and health benefits of cookstove projects in the context of carbon credits. It finds that carbon credits inherently account for climate benefits, but not for health. Therefore, clear objectives of cookstove interventions need to be defined prior to project implementation to insure the maximization of benefits in projects’ priority areas.

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A black-carbon mitigation wedge

Cited by 89 publications

References 12 publications

Does black carbon abatement hamper CO 2 abatement?

Does black carbon abatement hamper CO 2 abatement?

Quantifying immediate radiative forcing by black carbon and organic matter with the Specific Forcing Pulse

Carbon credits for cookstoves: Trade-offs in climate and health benefits

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