Small changes to emissions could reduce climate change in the short-run

A new study has suggested that there are smaller ways in which the world can reduce the effects of climate change whilst governments work to reduce the amounts of fossil fuels that are currently used. The Air Resources Board study has suggested that reducing selective particulate pollution overall air pollution could be reduced, allowing countries to minimise the effects of climate change in the short-run.

The study says that cleaning up primitive cook-stoves and diesel engines throughout China and India could delay the build-up of greenhouse gases, even if coal-fired plants continued to be used. According to the research, climate change could be stalled by around 15 per cent if countries throughout the world were to follow in California's footsteps. The state of California has been working to clean up emissions created by diesel engines, which has massively reduced air pollution.

The study covers the effects that aerosol pollutants have on air pollution and the rate at which climate change is occurring. All forms of aerosol pollutants, such as ozone, sulphur dioxide and soot, affect human health in a negative way, but affect the climate in different ways. Some of the pollutants lead to the climate heating up, whilst others have a cooling effect, according to Phil Rasch of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Diesel exhaust emits black-carbon particles which are responsible for warming the atmosphere. These absorb sunlight and heat up, whereas sulphates from coal-plant fumes reflect the sunlight away from the Earth; cooling the atmosphere down. Many argue that the two forms of particulate balance each other out.

The study argues that reducing or completely getting rid of only the black-carbon particles could result in the atmosphere cooling, and therefore negate some of the effects of atmospheric warming the globe has so far experienced. The effects of getting rid of black-carbon particulates would be immediate as they are removed from the atmosphere in weeks following the halt in emissions.

Whilst this would help to slow down some of the effects that air pollution can have on climate change, it is not an immediate fix. In order to fully negate the effects and to improve overall human health, reducing all forms of pollution is vital.