Soot from home stoves and cars harms the climate no less than CO2

Soot, methane and other pollutants produced by the combustion of diesel fuel and the use of coal or wood-burning home stoves are no less destructive to the Earth's ice sheets than CO2. These are the findings of a joint study by the World Bank and the International Climate and Cryosphere Initiative, published on Monday.

The processes of warming and melting of the Earth's ice and snow cover continue and accelerate. “Apart from a 1% increase in Antarctic sea ice extent and very few growing glaciers, none of the scientific papers reviewed provided evidence of a slowdown in the rate of rapid warming that has occurred in the cryosphere since the 1990s,” the study says. According to scientists, if current rates of warming are not reduced, further changes could lead to an explosive effect: emissions of greenhouse gases from permafrost will increase the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere by 30% by the end of this century. Warming ice and snow cover could also lead to rising sea levels, increased pressure on water resources and an increase in extreme weather events, the report's authors say.

Until recently, the main “blame” for climate change was placed solely on CO2 produced by burning fossil fuels. However, new research shows that a number of “short-lived pollutants,” such as methane or soot, are no less dangerous for the planet’s ice and snow cover. Their emissions reduce the reflectivity of snow and ice, which speeds up their melting.

Most "short-lived pollutants" are produced in the atmosphere by forest burning, black carbon emissions from diesel engines or solid fuel stoves burning wood or coal. Thus, according to Jim Yong Kim, president of the World Bank, every year about 4 million people die from smoke produced by old home cooking stoves, primarily in developing countries. According to Project Gaia, a social initiative that promotes the use of “clean” home stoves, about 3 billion people in the world cook or use wood or coal at home, which often leads to smoky indoor conditions, which has an extremely negative impact on the health of residents. As a solution to the problem, World Bank researchers suggest using improved stoves and forced-ventilation stoves using biomass, coal briquettes or pellet fuel.

Another major source of black carbon is the burning of fields and forests to expand farmland. Halving the amount of burning could reduce the number of deaths from air pollution by almost 200,000, according to a published study. And reducing diesel emissions will help avoid another 340 thousand premature deaths.

In early October, the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change published data showing that diesel fumes were much more harmful than petrol fumes. According to the UK's National Health Service, health problems caused by diesel fumes are ten times greater than those caused by petrol fumes.

Interestingly, until recently, a number of environmentalists, automakers and governments advocated the promotion of diesel engines due to their improved fuel efficiency and lower CO2 emissions. In a number of EU countries, vehicles running on diesel are subject to a lower fuel tax and do not have to pay for entry into the “green zones” of a number of European cities. To solve the “diesel” problem, the authors of the World Bank study propose raising the standards for diesel vehicles (to the Euro-6 level) and equipping them with particulate filters.

Finally, pollutants that have a significant impact on the snow and ice covers of the earth are methane (formed, among other things, in landfills) and black carbon from gas flaring in oil fields. Reducing the level of emissions of these pollutants is most important for the Russian Federation, where until recently about 95% of all associated gas was flared, now (after the adoption of a government decree on the use of associated petroleum gases in 2009) - about 25%. In addition, in May 2012, at the G8 summit at Camp David, the Russian government committed itself to controlling and reducing emissions of soot and methane - however, no official reports on the implementation of these commitments have yet appeared.

Angelina Davydova

The emissions turned black