Reducing black carbon: A triple win for climate, health, and well-being

Black carbon (BC), or soot, is a potent short-lived climate pollutant resulting from incomplete combustion of fossil fuels and biomass. The report identifies the residential and transportation sectors as the primary sources, with China and India as the largest emitters. It highlights a 'triple win' of reducing BC: slowing global warming (particularly in the Arctic and Himalayas), preventing millions of premature deaths, and avoiding trillions in economic losses. Key recommendations include scaling clean cooking in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, retrofitting diesel engines with particulate filters, regulating shipping fuels, and incorporating BC into national climate plans (NDCs).

• Black carbon (BC) is a significant driver of both health crises and climate warming, contributing to between three and six million excess deaths annually and adding approximately 0.1°C to global warming relative to pre-industrial levels.
• BC emissions are heavily concentrated in a few countries and sectors; China and India account for one-third of global emissions, and together with Brazil, Indonesia, and Nigeria, they represent 50% of all BC emissions. The residential sector is the largest global source at approximately 48%, followed by transportation at 24%.
• Reducing BC provides critical regional climate benefits, including the potential to reduce Arctic warming by 0.4°C between 2041 and 2050 and slowing glacier melt in the Himalayas and Hindu Kush mountains.
• The transition to clean cooking fuels in sub-Saharan Africa could avert approximately 463,000 deaths per year and generate a total net benefit of US$78 billion, primarily through improved health and reduced 'time poverty' for women and girls.
• Transportation emissions are a dominant BC source in urban areas, but can be mitigated by retrofitting diesel engines with particulate filters (removing up to 95% of BC) and accelerating the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrids.
• Global policy efforts to reduce BC are insufficient; only twelve countries have explicitly addressed BC in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), partly because BC is omitted from the UNFCCC's list of climate pollutants.
• Shipping emissions are particularly damaging to the Arctic; switching from heavy fuel oil to cleaner distillate fuel could reduce BC emissions by 44%, while diesel particulate filters could reduce them by up to 90%.

APA

Jameel, Y., West, P. C., & Jasper, D. (2023). Reducing black carbon: A triple win for climate, health, and well-being. Project Drawdown. https://drawdown.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/Jameel-etal-2023-Reducing-black-carbon_A-triple-win-for-climate-health-and-well-being_Project-Drawdown.pdf

Chicago

Jameel, Yusuf, Paul C. West, and Daniel Jasper. Reducing black carbon: A triple win for climate, health, and well-being. Project Drawdown, 2023. https://drawdown.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/Jameel-etal-2023-Reducing-black-carbon_A-triple-win-for-climate-health-and-well-being_Project-Drawdown.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Jameel |first1=Yusuf |last2=West |first2=Paul C. |last3=Jasper |first3=Daniel |title=Reducing black carbon: A triple win for climate, health, and well-being |publisher=Project Drawdown |date=November 2023 |url=https://drawdown.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/Jameel-etal-2023-Reducing-black-carbon_A-triple-win-for-climate-health-and-well-being_Project-Drawdown.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{jameel2023reducing, author = {Jameel, Yusuf and West, Paul C. and Jasper, Daniel}, title = {{Reducing black carbon: A triple win for climate, health, and well-being}}, institution = {Project Drawdown}, year = {2023}, month = nov, url = {https://drawdown.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/Jameel-etal-2023-Reducing-black-carbon_A-triple-win-for-climate-health-and-well-being_Project-Drawdown.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }