Science-based legal pathways to reduce black carbon emissions in the EU and China: Towards integrated climate – air quality approaches
Climate change and air pollution are two of the most important challenges to public health and sustainability, closely linked both in terms of emission sources and impacts. These two problems are often addressed in a fragmented, siloed manner, and there is no sufficient understanding of what explains such policy disintegration and how to develop and diffuse effective legal rules to achieve co-benefits for climate and air quality. One example is reducing emissions of short-lived climate pollutants, including black carbon, which contributes to air pollution and climate change.
The main aim of the project is to develop pathways to reduce black carbon emissions in the EU and China through integrated approaches to climate change and air pollution. To achieve the overall aim, the project is organised into three work packages (WPs) – one with a socio-legal focus (WP1, “Law & Governance”), drawing on policy integration and norm diffusion studies; one focused on climate modelling (WP2, “Scientific Modelling”) and a third package to coordinate between them and synthesise findings (WP3, “Synthesis & Coordination”).
The long-term contribution of ClimAirPathways is the advancement of problem-oriented, interdisciplinary research for better policy coherence and sustainable development. In doing so, the project draws on insights and expertise gained under two previous projects on short-lived climate pollutants at CCEEL, ClimaSlow (European Research Council, 2017-2022) and Keeping the Arctic White (Academy of Finland 2015-2018).
The project is funded by Research Council of Finland (2023-2027). The project consortium consists of UEF CCEEL and the Finnish Meteorological Institute.
Consortium PI – Dr Yulia Yamineva
UEF team – Niklas Löther (project researcher)
FMI team – Dr Thomas Kühn
Project Activities:
– Participation as an invited speaker on “Climate, Air Quality, and Health in the Arctic” at the Arctic Circle Forum, 7-8 May 2024 in Berlin (Yulia Yamineva)
– Presentation of a working paper in the “Governance Innovations for Accelerated and Equitable Climate and Energy Transitions in Cities” workshop at the ECPR Joint Sessions, 25-28 March 2024 in Lüneburg (Niklas Löther)
– Presentation of the project at the UEF Sustainability Days, 19-21 March 2024 in Joensuu (Niklas Löther)
– Presentation of the project at the ACCC-FASN Science Conference, 21-22 November 2023 in Kuopio (Niklas Löther)