Kakata, Margibi County – The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in partnership with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) last Thursday and Friday held a stakeholders’ engagement and technical training with stakeholders to provide insights to help policy makers understand targets and policies on how ‘highly potent’ short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) can be added in Liberia’s revised Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC).
As opposed to carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, short-lived climate pollutants have relatively short lifetime in the atmosphere and a global warming influence on the climate.
As such, reducing SLCPs can help in achieving climate objectives while contributing to improving the air quality. These pollutants include methane and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), black carbon, which is a component of fine particulate matter (PM2.5), and ground-level ozone (is a product of precursors including nitrogen, oxides (NOX), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and carbon monoxide (CO), which transform into ozone in the atmosphere).
As part of the ongoing training, best international practices, case studies and examples will be presented including the multiple economic and social development benefits that can be reaped by taking actions to reduce SLCPs. The ongoing engagement will also provide training and practical exercises to assess the current situation in Liberia, how to estimate the emission reduction potential of SLCPs and establish sector specific SLCP targets and will also present the results obtained for Liberia NDC update for validation and comments.
The training was attended by various stakeholders, including National Public Health Institute, Ministry of Finance & Development Planning, Ministry of Commerce & Industries and representatives from the private sector and various Universities across Liberia.
Giving a brief overview of the clean air coalition, which works toward reducing earth made pollutant, the head of Laboratory at the EPA, Rafael S. Ngumbu stated that the main aim of the workshop was to look at reports on how to reduce SLCPs, at the same time giving more awareness on the harmful effect and global warming potential of these pollutants.
“So, in the past, the focus has been gases that last longer in the atmosphere, with high global warming potential; so the climate and clean air coalition was founded in 2012 of February to be able to also work on the issue of SLCPs,” explained Ngumbu who added.
The activity is being sponsored by the UNDP in partnership with the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) under the UNDP Global Climate Promise initiative that supports countries in enhancing NDC ambitions.