Clean air policies are key for successfully mitigating Arctic warming

• Published in: Communications Earth & Environment
• Main Authors: VON SALZEN Knut, WHALEY Cynthia, ANENBERG Susan, VAN DINGENEN Rita, KLIMONT Zbigniew, FLANNER Mark, MAHMOOD Rashed, ARNOLD Stephen, BEAGLEY Stephen, CHIEN Rong-You, CHRISTENSEN Jesper, ECKHARDT Sabine, EKMAN Annica M. L., EVANGELIOU Nikolaos, FALUVEGI Greg, FU Joshua, GAUSS Michael, GONG W, HJORTH Jens, IM Ulas, KRISHNAN Srinath, KUPIAINEN Kaarle, KÜHN Thomas, LANGNER J., LAW Kathy S., MARELLE Louis, OLIVIÉ Dirk, ONISHI Tatsou, OSHIMA Naga, PAUNU Ville-Veikko, PENG Yiran, PLUMMER David, POZZOLI Luca, RAO-SKIRBEKK Shilpa, RAUT Jean-Christophe, SAND Maria, SCHMALE Julia, SIGMOND Michael, THOMAS Manu A., TSIGARIDIS Kostas, TSYRO S., TURNOCK Steven, WANG Minqi, WINTER Barbara
• Language: English
• Published: SPRINGERNATURE 2022
• Subjects: Arctic; Human health
• Online Access: https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC127054; https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-022-00555-x; https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-022-00555-x

A tighter integration of modeling frameworks for climate and air quality is urgently needed to assess the impacts of clean air policies on future Arctic and global climate. We combined a new model emulator and comprehensive emissions scenarios for air pollutants and greenhouse gases to assess climate and human health co-benefits of emissions reductions. Fossil fuel use is projected to rapidly decline in an increasingly sustainable world, resulting in farreaching air quality benefits. Despite human health benefits, reductions in sulfur emissions in a more sustainable world could enhance Arctic warming by 0.8 °C in 2050 relative to the 1995–2014, thereby offsetting climate benefits of greenhouse gas reductions. Targeted and technically feasible emissions reduction opportunities exist for achieving simultaneous climate and human health co-benefits. It would be particularly beneficial to unlock a newly identified mitigation potential for carbon particulate matter, yielding Arctic climate benefits equivalent to those from carbon dioxide reductions by 2050. JRC.C.5 - Clean Air and Climate