Air pollutants and greenhouse gases are often emitted from the same sources, such as coal-fired power plants and diesel-fueled vehicles. Fine particles are the most damaging air pollutants to health responsible for more than 90% of the approximately 7 million premature deaths per year caused by air pollution. Methane is a precursor of ground-level ozone and is 80 times more potent at warming the planet than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. Exposure to ozone causes some 1 million premature deaths every year. Furthermore, some components of fine particles, such as black carbon, are also powerful short-lived climate pollutants. Reducing fine particles therefore helps to achieve local benefits of improving air quality and health, and global benefits of climate change mitigation. These linkages between air pollution and climate pollutants call for integrated approaches to air quality management and climate change mitigation, to ensure that global benefits of air quality management are realized, and at the same time, climate change mitigation choices do not result in increased local air pollution and harm to health.
The main objective of this event is to call for action by COP26 to catalyze clean air efforts around the world to simultaneously achieve climate, health and sustainable development goals.
This event is being organized jointly by the World Bank, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Environmental Defense Fund and World Resources Institute.
The event will be livestreamed at the Methane Moment Pavilion in the COP26 Blue Zone in Glasgow.