Time to Dump Dirty Diesels Worldwide

Peter Lehner, Executive Director, New York City

When I took over the environmental prosecution unit of the New York City Law Department in 1990, I conducted an informal survey of everyone I knew, asking: What's the worst environmental problem in New York City? By a big margin, people said it was the black smoke coming out of trucks and buses, emitted from a tailpipe at the same level as kids' heads.

Today, few people would even mention it. Real change happened here, and relatively quickly. Ducking to avoid a smelly cloud of toxic, cancer-causing diesel exhaust is a reflex that New Yorkers need rarely call upon, thanks to clean air laws and strict emission standards on diesel. When the last of the dirty diesels are phased out across the country, around 2030, we'll be saving about 26,000 lives each year.

Diesel pollution from buses in Jakarta (courtesy Asian Development Bank via Flickr)

In the developing world, however, diesel is still a killer. (Diesel emissions certainly played a role in China's recent off-the-charts smog.) Dirty diesel engines, along with power plants and traditional cookstoves, are major generators of particulate matter--more commonly referred to as soot--which is responsible for 3.2 million premature deaths each year, worldwide.

Diesel engines are also a major contributor to climate change. At the heart of every diesel soot particle lies a light-absorbing, heat-emitting core of what's called black carbon. According to a major new study published last week, black carbon is the second largest human-made contributor to global warming. It has twice the global warming impact previously thought. And diesel engines are responsible for 20 to 25 percent of the world's black carbon emissions.

So diesel exhaust is not only a deadly public health risk, but a powerful agent of global warming as well. Yet we know from experience that we can slash diesel pollution, quickly and effectively.

In the United States, programs to clean up diesel have been remarkably effective. When New York City got rid of its dirty diesel buses (in response to a campaign spearheaded by NRDC), particulate emissions from the fleet dropped 97 percent. Black carbon emissions were likely cut by a similar amount through that effort. In California, total black carbon emissions have fallen nearly 50 percent in the past 25 years, largely due to strict diesel emission standards.

New diesel engines in this country are now 90 to 95 percent cleaner than engines that were sold just a few years ago, thanks to a national low-sulfur fuel standard and emissions standards that have made new filter technologies standard equipment on all new trucks and buses. America's clean diesel programs are expected to prevent 26,000 premature deaths every year.

Similar programs around the world have the potential to save millions of lives--and can also help put the brakes on global warming in the short term. Unlike carbon dioxide, black carbon is a short-lived climate pollutant. It takes effect quickly, and wears off quickly. When we pump less of it into the atmosphere, the benefits are almost immediate.

Diesel vehicles in developing nations burn high-sulfur fuel and lack even the most basic emissions controls, exposing people to nearly 100 times as much toxic pollution, while also generating tons of global warming pollution. Because diesel pollution occurs in densely populated areas, right at breathing level, it has an outsized impact on human health, making diesel a critical target in the fight for clean air. And because diesel exhaust produces black carbon, which has now been confirmed as a major global warming pollutant, it's also a critical target in the fight to curb climate change.

NRDC, a founder of the Partnership for Clean Fuels and Vehicles, has been working on cleaning up diesel pollution throughout the developing world.

Through the partnership, countries around the world have started working toward creating a standard for ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel. This fuel is already available in some major world cities, including Delhi, Hong Kong, Mexico City, and Beijing, but its use is not widespread, and certainly not standard.

The partnership's previous success in eliminating lead from gasoline worldwide-a move that is expected to generate $2.4 trillion in health, social, and economic benefits--lends hope that it could achieve similar success with diesel. Cleaning up diesel worldwide would prevent millions of premature deaths from cancer, heart attacks, and lung disease. It would also help to quickly reduce global warming pollution. Along with our efforts to counter the long-term, potent effects of carbon dioxide, it makes eminent sense to tackle short-acting pollutants like black carbon as well. Dumping dirty diesel is an excellent way to start.

http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/plehner/time_to_dump_dirty_diesels_w

Top Three Things We Urge Obama to Do to Curb Climate Change--And Without Waiting for Congress

Frances Beinecke, President of NRDC, New York City

Most people don't think chocolate factories or hardware stores have much to do with climate change. Yet residents of Queens, New York have discovered that extreme weather can devastate local businesses. Hurricane Sandy swamped the Madelaine Chocolate Company, for instance, and two months later, owners were still clearing out mud and suspending pay for 450 employees. A nearby hardware store won't reopen until February and other businesses don't know if they will reopen at all.

Neighborhood residents are left reeling. "It's like anyone who didn't lose his home lost his job," Juan Colon told the New York Times.

When I first started working on climate change a decade ago, we spoke in terms of distant forecasts and long-range impacts. Now we simply look out the window to see what climate change can do to our communities. As demonstrated by the drought that gripped more than half the nation last summer or the intense storms that pummeled towns from Duluth to Queens, climate change is upending lives and costing billions of dollars.

We no longer have the luxury of time. We must act now to prevent more Americans from feeling the pain of lost jobs, destroyed homes, and shuttered businesses.

That is why NRDC and 68 other civic, healthcare, labor, and environmental groups are calling on President Obama to use his second term to take bold and decisive action on climate change.

This week we sent a letter outlining the top three things the president can do to defuse the climate threat. Right now. Using existing authority. And without movement in Congress.

First, we urge President Obama to elevate the issue of climate change in the public discourse. As my colleague Dan Lashof explains on his blog, the way the president talks about climate change has the ability to rally public support and build political will for climate solutions.

Hurricane Sandy debris in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Photo Credit: Sunset Parkerpix.

Second, we urge President Obama to use the Environmental Protection Agency's existing authority to limit carbon pollution from existing power plants-our nation's largest source of global warming pollution. NRDC has proposed a flexible, cost-effective plan for how the EPA can set standards that will reduce carbon pollution by 34 percent by 2026 compared to 2005 levels and generate between $25 and $60 billion in benefits by 2020.

Third, we urge President Obama to reject the use of the dirtiest fuels. Producing tar sands oil, for instance, generates three times as much greenhouse gas emissions as conventional crude-and that's even before we burn it in cars and trucks. As my colleague Susan Casey-Lefkowitz writes in her latest post, we can't rely on dirty tar sands oil without threatening our health and communities. That's why the president must reject the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.

These three steps put America on a path toward climate stability. They will shield more Americans from devastating drought, heat waves, and storms. And they will unleash more investment in clean energy resources that generate jobs and make our air safer to breathe.

But we have to act now to reap the most benefits, because climate change isn't waiting. According to a NOAA report released on Tuesday, 2012 was the hottest year on record for the continental United States. Our climate is mutating before our eyes, and we must arrest its destructive changes.

President Obama recognizes this reality. He has already acted to cut carbon pollution from cars and new power plants and he recently said he would make climate change a top priority for his new term. He can begin by taking these three steps.

http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/fbeinecke/top_three_things_we_urge_o