The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Changes’ (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) has delivered another wakeup call about the need for drastic cuts to greenhouse emissions by 2035 to avoid the most devastating impacts of climate change to human well-being and ecosystems. Carbon dioxide (CO2) may be the most well-known greenhouse gas (GHG), but others, known as non-CO2 or short-lived climate pollutants, also have a critical role to play in keeping the Paris Agreement’s 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F) temperature goal within reach, while also improving air quality and protecting health.

Short-lived climate pollutants — methane, black carbon and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), which are also sometimes known as “super pollutants” — remain in the atmosphere for less time than carbon dioxide but have a potent impact on near-term global warming. For example, methane has more than 80 times the warming power of CO2 in its first 20 years in the atmosphere. And about 45% of today's net global warming is driven by methane emissions from human activities. Moreover, methane is also a precursor for another powerful driver of climate change: tropospheric (ground-level) ozone.