United States Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Chris Murphy (D-CT) released a bipartisan bill Wednesday to control short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs), including refrigerants, methane, and black carbon.
The atmospheric compounds “break down significantly faster than CO2, on the order of days for black carbon and up to 12 years for methane,” ThinkProgress explains. “But they can also be hundreds or thousands of times more effective at trapping heat than carbon dioxide.” The Center for Climate and Energy Solutions calculates that SLCPs are responsible for 40% of global warming to date.
“Studies show that fast action to reduce SLCPs in the atmosphere could cut the rate of sea level rise by 25%, almost halve the rate of temperature rise, prevent two million premature deaths each year, and avoid crop losses of over 30 million tons annually,” Murphy and Collins stated.
