Climate actions can advance sustainable development

The post-2015 development agenda is dominated by a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which arose from the 2012 Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development. The agreed 17 goals and 169 targets address diverse and intersecting aspects of human and environmental needs and challenges. Achieving the SDGs by 2030 requires implementing coordinated and concerted strategies and actions that minimize potential trade-offs and conflicts and maximize synergies to contribute to multiple SDGs 1. Measures to mitigate emissions of short-lived climate pollutants (SLCP) are an example of actions that contribute to multiple outcomes relevant to development 2,3. This paper highlights the interlinkages between SLCPs and the SDGs and shows that implementing SLCP emissions reduction measures will contribute to achieving many of the SDGs. 1.0. Mitigating SLCPs SLCPs are agents that contribute to warming but have relatively short lifetimes in the atmosphere-a few days to a few decades-consequently harmful concentrations of SLCPs can be reduced in a matter of weeks to years, resulting in near-term benefits. Many SLCPs are also powerful air pollutants which are significant contributors to premature death and chronic illness globally and harm the environment. The main SLCPs are black carbon, methane, tropospheric ozone, and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) (Figure 1).

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