Non CO2 Solutions to Climate Change

Reducing non-CO2 climate change agents such as black carbon soot, tropospheric ozone, and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), as well as expanding bio-sequestration, can forestall fast approaching abrupt climate changes, according to Nobel Laureate Mario Molina, a researcher at UC San Diego, and co-authors of a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). 

The paper's authors said that pursuing these solutions could change the character of a United Nations conference on climate change taking place in December in Copenhagen.

"Cutting HFCs, black carbon, tropospheric ozone, and methane can buy us about 40 years before we approach the dangerous threshold of 2°C (3.6°F) warming," said co-author Veerabhadran Ramanathan, a distinguished professor of climate and atmospheric sciences at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.