Faulting the world for not doing enough to fight climate change, the United States has announced the formation of a coalition to cut short-lived pollutants that speed up warming and harm health.
The US Secretary of State, Ms Hillary Clinton, said the coalition of the United States, Bangladesh, Canada, Mexico, Sweden and Ghana will launch a global drive to curb black carbon (soot), methane and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).
The chief US diplomat said such pollutants survive only a short time in the atmosphere — unlike long-lasting carbon dioxide, the main climate change culprit — but account for more than a third of global warming.
“We know that in the principal effort necessary to reduce the effects of carbon dioxide, the world has not yet done enough,” Ms Clinton told an audience at the State Department that included envoys from the coalition countries.
“So when we discover effective and affordable ways to reduce global warming — not just a little, but by a lot — it is a call to action for all of us,” she said.
“This coalition, the first international effort of its kind, will conduct a targeted, practical and highly energetic global campaign to spread solutions to the short-lived pollutants worldwide,” she added.
“It will mobilise resources, assemble political support, help countries develop and implement a national action plan, raise public awareness, and reach out to other countries, companies, NGOs and foundations.”
NGOs are non-government organisations that include environmental and other activist groups.