Although it warms the atmosphere 10,000s of times faster than CO₂, black carbon remains underappreciated as a climate change driver. Here are the crucial facts.
- Black carbon is a byproduct of burning fossil fuels
Black carbon, also known as soot, consists of tiny particles, about 1/100th the width of a human hair in size, that form when fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas are burned incompletely. Among its sources are the exhaust pipes of trucks and other diesel-powered vehicles, industrial facilities like power plants, steel mills and brick kilns, and wood-burning cooking stoves.
- Black carbon drives climate change
Black carbon is a climate-forcing agent, meaning it contributes to global warming. When black carbon is emitted, the microscopic particles become suspended in the atmosphere. Because they are dark in color, they absorb energy from the sun. They radiate that energy back into the atmosphere in the form of heat.
- Black carbon outmuscles CO₂ – by a lot
As a driver of global warming, black carbon is up to 52,000 times more potent than carbon dioxide. That’s why, along with methane, HFCs and tropospheric ozone, it’s one of the “Big Four” non-CO₂ climate pollutants that are responsible for 45% of all manmade global warming.
- It stays around for just a few days…
As opposed to CO₂, which lingers for centuries, black carbon doesn’t become “well-mixed” in the atmosphere. It falls back down to the surface or is washed out of the air by rain within five days. That’s why we call it a “short-lived climate pollutant.”
- …But we emit it every single day
No-one should be misled by the term “short-lived.” Since we emit black carbon in vast quantities every day, it’s a permanent problem. In 2019, the world emitted almost 6 million metric tons of black carbon. Totals have been decreasing slowly, but they remain stubbornly high, mainly in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
- Black carbon contributes to melting snow- and ice caps
When black carbon comes down from the atmosphere, it can settle on snow and ice, light-colored surfaces that reflect the sun’s heat back into space. Covered in black carbon, which absorbs heat, they begin to melt away, exposing darker rock and soil surfaces, which absorb even more heat. In this manner, black carbon pollution lowers the Earth’s albedo (its reflectivity), driving a vicious cycle of heat and melting.
- It can destroy your health
Because they are about 1/100th the width of a human hair, black carbon particles penetrate deep into the lungs. Black carbon is associated with a host of diseases including asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), heart attacks, strokes, and various pregnancy-related issues. It is a significant factor in the 8 million annual global deaths associated with air pollution caused by fossil fuel use. This is one of the reasons why the fights against climate change and air pollution are so closely interlinked.
- If we stopped emitting black carbon today…
Black carbon only stays aloft for a few days. That means that if we could zero out its emissions today, the return on investment would be immediate. Black carbon particles would be out of the atmosphere by next week, no longer trapping heat and causing people to get sick. All the more reason to step up our efforts to curb emissions, starting today.
Find out what you can do to assess or offset your own black carbon emissions.
Media Outlet
To stabilize our climate, we need to preserve the Earth’s albedo – its overall heat reflectivity. Here’s how that works:
Every moment of every day, 173,000 terawatts of energy reach Earth from the sun. That’s about 10,000 times more than humanity’s total energy use. But not all that energy stays on Earth. About a third (31 percent) is reflected into space immediately.
The Earth’s reflectivity is also known as its albedo; and it plays an important role in regulating our climate.
To keep the planet cool, make it lighter
Every surface has its own albedo value. The lighter-colored a surface is, the more heat it reflects and the higher its albedo.
High-albedo surfaces:
- Snow and ice: Reflect up to 90% of sunlight
- Clouds: Reflect 30-80% of solar energy
- Deserts: Light-colored sands have moderate albedo
Low-albedo surfaces:
- Forests: Dark green absorbs sunlight, with an albedo of 10-20%
- Oceans: Deep blue absorbs even more sunlight, reflecting only about 6-10%
- Cities: Asphalt and concrete trap almost all heat – their albedo is as low as 5%
It’s a people problem
When it comes to climate, the basic rule is simple:
the more dark surfaces, the more heat the planet retains. Things get more complicated when you mix in the human factor.
- As we emit carbon dioxide and other climate change drivers including methane, black carbon and HFCs, we cause global warming.
- More heat in the atmosphere causes more ice and snow to melt, which exposes more low-albedo surfaces such as rock, soil, and seawater.
- These darker surfaces absorb heat, causing more snow and ice to melt. This causes a feedback loop of rising heat, melting and more heat.
Other human drivers of albedo changes include:
- Deforestation: Cutting down forests lowers albedo.
- Urbanization: Asphalt, concrete and other dark materials used in the built environment absorb more heat, leading to the so-called urban heat island effect.
- Pollution: Soot and dust darken surfaces and can cause snow and ice to melt.
So, what can we do?
Preserving and even taking steps to increase the planet’s albedo are an important component of the fight against climate change. These steps can help:
Lowering emissions
The sooner we reduce excess atmospheric heat, the more ice and snow we’ll stop from melting.
Protecting ice and snow
Other steps to preserve our most reflective surfaces include limiting the use of ice breakers and lowering air pollution to eliminate heat-absorbing dark deposits.
Preserving ecosystem
We’ve already seen that replacing deserts with darker farms, roads, industry, and residential buildings lowers the Earth’s albedo. But did you know that higher ocean temperatures lead to the loss of phytoplankton, whose metabolic gases promote the formation of clouds? Maintaining these ecosystems helps preserve the Earth’s albedo.
Increasing Earth’s reflectivity
The use of lighter-colored and reflective construction materials helps counteract the urban heat island effect and contributes modestly to albedo protection. Trees and plants reflect more heat than asphalt and create shade that protects people from heat.
Media Outlet
What if we could slow down the excess heat that is fueling more frequent and violent Atlantic hurricanes? It’s not as crazy as you may think.
September 2024’s Hurricane Helene was one of the largest ever seen in the Gulf of Mexico, unleashing winds upwards of tropical storm force (39 mph and up) across more than 400 miles, and devastating communities as far inland as North Carolina. It’s just one example of how mounting atmospheric heat is supercharging the hurricane season.
What’s going on: As the climate warms, so do the oceans’ surface waters, since they absorb most of the heat trapped in the atmosphere. According to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the oceans’ top layers have warmed by 1.5° C since 1901.i
Why does this matter? Because hurricanes draw their energy from warm ocean waters. The warmer the water, the more energy available for storms to form and intensify.
Hurricanes can form when sea surface temperatures are above 26.5°C (80°F). As global warming pushes ocean temperatures beyond this threshold over larger areas and for longer periods, we’re essentially expanding the “hurricane nursery.”
What it means: Hurricane seasons are getting longer, and storms are getting bigger, more frequent, and costlier.
- The intensity, frequency, and duration of North Atlantic hurricanes, as well as the frequency of the strongest hurricanes (Category 4 and 5), have all increased since the early 1980s, says the U.S. government’s National Climate Assessment.
- A 2023 Rowan University study found that hurricane intensification rates – the amount of strength a storm can gather in a given number of hours – were 28.7 percent greater in 2001-2020 than in 1970-1990.
- As of August 2023, the U.S. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported that of all the billion-dollar-plus weather disasters since 1980, hurricanes were the costliest, clocking in at an average of $22.8 billion per event and $1.3 trillion combined. They also killed more people than any other weather event, with almost 7,000 dead in the same time frame.
What we can do: We will have to invest in building resilience. For instance, we can strengthen infrastructure with coastal ecosystem restoration projects, elevated buildings, better drainage, and electric microgrids. Evacuation plans, pre-positioned emergency supplies and clear communication can help protect communities.
But there is only so much that investing in resilience can accomplish. Addressing the symptoms does not fix the underlying cause of ever-strengthening hurricane seasons.
What if we could address the root cause, rising air and water temperatures in the near term?
About near-term heat reduction: The newest climate science shows that it is possible to lower the excess heat that is driving extreme weather phenomena like hurricanes run amuck.
- In the long run, reducing CO2 emissions to net zero is the best way to lower the atmosphere’s temperature. But that takes time – decades at best.
- In the short run, roughly half of manmade global warming is not caused by CO2, but by powerful climate super pollutants, including methane, black carbon, and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). Because they are short-lived (methane and HFCs dissipate within 10-20 years, black carbon in just days), rapid, large-scale emissions cuts would begin to yield results within years, not decades.
- Climate super pollutant cuts can also make up for the effects of reductions in emissions of sulfate and nitrate aerosols by oceangoing ships. These sulfates cool the atmosphere because they scatter and reflect sunlight, but they have been phased out because they are detrimental to human health and the environment.
- Meanwhile, we can take actions to protect the oceans’ albedo (their heat reflectivity). For instance, smart routing of sea traffic and reducing the use of icebreakers can help maintain highly reflective polar ice that plays a key part if regulating the oceans’ temperatures.
- Protecting marine ecosystems can help maintain phytoplankton populations. This is important for ocean albedo, because phytoplankton metabolism releases gases that promote cloud formation, and clouds reflect the sun’s heat into space.
Bottom line: There is no silver bullet. We can’t just “turn down the heat” on hurricanes. But we are not powerless, and it doesn’t have to take decades. With every tenth of a degree of avoided global warming, we can save lives and avoid massive amounts of economic damage and human suffering.
Learn more about the science of heat reduction.
Media Outlet
Between hurricanes, droughts, floods, and other calamities, climate change is a multipronged risk for business leaders. Now, it’s time to think about the risks of raw heat.
Barely a week goes by without a record heatwave somewhere in the world. According to the World Economic Forum, mounting heat can result in economic losses of $1.7 to 3.1 trillion per year. It’s well past time to take heat very seriously as a business risk.
Here are the 8 hottest issues:
- Increased operational costs
Higher temperatures lead to increased energy consumption for cooling. This drives up costs, impacts profitability and strains financial resources, especially for energy-intensive industries. - Supply chain disruptions
Excess heat can affect transportation infrastructure like roads, railways, and shipping routes. It can also impact production and raw material availability, leading to delays and increased costs. - Workforce productivity decline
High temperatures can reduce productivity and increase absenteeism due to heat-related illnesses. This leads to higher healthcare expenses, legal liabilities, and decreased morale. - Damage to physical assets
Excessive heat can cause damage to infrastructure and equipment. Buildings, machinery, and technology systems may need more frequent replacements or upgrades. - Impacts on agricultural output and the food supply
For businesses dependent on agricultural products, excess heat can negatively affect crop yields and livestock health, leading to increased costs and potential shortages in supply. - Insurance and liability costs
Increased heat risk can lead to higher insurance premiums and greater liability exposures. Businesses may face higher premiums and financial losses from underinsured events. - Regulatory and compliance challenges
Businesses may face stricter regulations related to emissions and energy usage. Adapting to new regulations can be costly and time-consuming, potentially affecting competitiveness. - Reputational risk and brand damage
Businesses may face public scrutiny and reputational damage if they are perceived as not doing enough to mitigate climate change. This can affect customer loyalty and investor confidence.
Bottom line: heat-related risks are real and growing fast. It’s time to get serious about mitigation. No company can stop mounting heat by itself, but working with the Global Heat Reduction Initiative, corporations and governments can target and slash emissions of climate super pollutants like methane, black carbon, and HFCs that cause roughly half of all warming and can be 1,000s of times stronger than carbon dioxide.
Here’s how:
- Registry: Support powerful near-term heat mitigation projects and purchase credits that reduce super pollutants and CO2 on your path to net zero.
- Footprinting: Learn your operations’ heat impact with the most comprehensive climate footprint available and make smarter, more cost-effective decisions to reduce it.
- Advisory: Work with us to develop heat impact assessments for new and existing projects and facilities, optimize your climate investments, and integrate near-term heat reduction into your climate strategy.
Contact us to learn how we can support your business.
Media Outlet
Time to go faster on curbing climate change. The summer of 2024 was the warmest on record for the Northern hemisphere – again. Nine of the ten hottest years on the books fell in the last decade. Expectations are that 2024 will set another record. Despite our climate efforts, we’re losing ground instead of gaining it.
We can arrest runaway global warming, by targeting climate super pollutants now. That’s why we recently launched Global Heat Reduction Initiative (GHR). “Our goal is to help business and organizations of all stripes speed up the fight against global warming,” said Executive Director Kiff Gallagher. “By acting on the most potent heat drivers, we can see results in years, not decades.”
Did you know that roughly half of all current anthropogenic global warming is caused by climate super pollutants such as methane, black carbon, and HCFs? Or that methane alone is responsible for about 30 percent of all warming since the industrial Revolution? As we step up efforts to reduce carbon emissions, simultaneously tackling super pollutants will provide the turbo boost we need now:
- Super pollutants are many times more potent than CO2. Methane is 150 times stronger in the first year it is emitted. Black carbon up to 52,000 times.
- But they are also short-lived. While CO2 heats up the atmosphere for centuries, methane disappears within 10-12 years and black carbon within days.
- This means bigger near-term results. One tonne of avoided black carbon emissions this year is more than 8 times more powerful by 2030 than by avoiding 1000 tonnes of CO2.
What GHR is doing: GHR offers a game-changing, peer-reviewed climate accounting method based on the latest IPCC science, clarifying the actual heat impacts of any climate driver over both the short and the long term. It’s something conventional climate accounting methods can’t do, and it underpins GHR’s new services:
- Registry: GHR recently launched a climate registry to finance super pollutant reduction projects that have been undervalued by carbon markets and enable buyers to make heat reduction claims on their path to net zero.
- Footprinting: Providing the most complete climate footprints available today, assessing not only CO2 and other greenhouse gases, but also traditionally overlooked super pollutants and even changes in the earth’s heat reflectivity (albedo), over any time frame. This new, actionable data helps users to make more informed mitigation investment decisions.
- Advisory: Offering expert insight and analysis to support public and private organizations as they develop climate strategies and investments, including heat impact assessments of development and infrastructure projects.
Why this matters: “The next decade is crucial,” said Gallagher. “To avoid irreversible climate tipping points, we must act fast and with the best information available. With GHR, corporations and governments can now do so in a smart, cost-effective manner.”
The long view: While slashing super pollutants can give us a big boost, getting to net zero on CO2 by 2050 remains paramount. Fortunately, super pollutant reductions are feasible with existing, off-the-shelf technologies. There is no reason that we can’t do both at the same time.
Media Outlet
In the face of an escalating climate crisis, businesses and corporations hold serious power to mobilize robust climate action across all sectors of the global economy. But what is the most strategic, evidence-based way for businesses to have the greatest, positive impact? Enter the Global Heat Reduction Initiative (GHR), a pioneering effort poised to fill the critical gap in climate action by targeting super pollutants — potent, yet often overlooked, contributors to global warming.
In this blog, the GHR team unpacks the latest progress on super pollutant science — plus, why it’s critical to target super pollutants in any organization’s climate action plan and investment portfolio. We also get into some specific ways to reduce business risk, make better mitigation investments, and get credit for the work you’re already doing by measuring and managing all drivers of global warming.
What are climate ‘super pollutants’?
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most widely understood greenhouse gas and the single largest driver of our planet’s warming. This means we’re never going to solve the problem of climate change without confronting CO2. But there are many other significant pollutants that occur along a dynamic spectrum of greenhouse gases and climate disruptors, each with a wide range of heat-trapping capacities.
Collectively referred to as “super pollutants,” these lesser-known climate drivers— methane, black carbon, low-level ozone, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), and nitrous oxide, to name a few — are responsible for approximately half of the planet’s warming to date. And just like CO2, these super pollutants result from the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and gas — but most importantly, they are far more potent in their heat-trapping strengths than CO2 in the critical near term (10-30-year time scale).
So, while reducing CO2 from our atmosphere will bring about truly substantial benefits 50-100 years from now, reducing the prevalence of super pollutants in our atmosphere will bring about substantial benefits now.
Super pollutants are the missing link in targeted climate action
The complex interplay between climate change, air pollution, and super pollutants is the field of study Dr. Drew Shindell, leading U.S. climate scientist and Chair of the Scientific Advisory Panel to the Climate and Clean Air Coalition, has dedicated his career to understanding and communicating.
In a 2019 study published in Nature, Dr. Shindell demonstrates how reducing short lived climate forcing pollutants (SCLPs), such as black carbon, methane, and HFCs, from our atmosphere can dramatically start to bend the planet’s average temperature curve downwards — in both the near term as well as the long term.
And in another article for CarbonBrief penned by Dr. Shindell and colleagues, they explain that “cutting emissions of super pollutants is one of the most effective ways to ‘keep 1.5C alive’ in the near-term, while protecting health and avoiding tipping points that could cause irreversible shifts in the Earth system.”
Specifically, that means a “yes, and” approach to robust climate action: Yes to reducing carbon dioxide for long term benefits and yes to targeting super pollutants to diminish heat in the near term.
In a recent webinar with the GHR team, Dr. Shindell emphasizes these points: “The only possibility to stay below two degrees [Celsius of average global temperature increase] at this point is to combine decarbonization with targeted cuts in the non-CO2 pollutants — because these really are such an important part of the story.”
What do super pollutants have to do with business?
Business leaders will be the first to say that they cannot manage what they cannot measure, so understanding greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants, how to reduce them, and how to leverage the benefits of these reductions offer major advantages to organizations of all sizes.
Essentially, businesses will miss their climate targets if they do not take super pollutants into account. Case in point: Global climate targets remain elusive for even the most organized and innovative of businesses. In 2024, Accenture’s Destination Net Zero analysis reported that 84% of the world’s largest companies are not on track to reach net zero by 2050. Further analyses reported in KPMG’s 2024 United States CEO Outlook showed only 54% of CEOs are confident that their organizations will meet their 2030 net zero goals. Such statistics demonstrate that businesses need a much more strategic and targeted approach to climate action.
Beyond the possible reality of missed net zero targets — and inevitable exacerbation of social, environmental, and economic harms associated with those misses — businesses will continue to face increased costs resulting from the impacts of extreme heat.
Recently the World Economic Forum (WEF) stated: “Extreme heat and other climate hazards are expected to cause between $560–610 billion in annual fixed asset losses for listed companies by 2035, with telecommunications, utilities, and energy companies most vulnerable.”
In addition to the private sector absorbing many of the economic costs associated with excessive heat, we already see other negative impacts such as compromised agricultural commodities, increased risk in supply chains, diminished air quality, weakened workforce, and increased regulatory risk — all of which have a devastating cumulative effect on businesses of all sizes and in every location around the globe.
Policy momentum targets super pollutants
Recent policy developments have significantly advanced the momentum for reducing methane and other super pollutants from our atmosphere. The Global Methane Pledge, launched at COP26, has garnered commitments from over 150 countries to reduce methane emissions by 30% by the end of this decade.
Additionally, the United States, China, and others have organized a summit to address industrial nitrous oxide and other super pollutant emissions. Likewise, major policies in the U.S. have introduced economic incentives for methane capture, aligning financial interests with environmental goals. Together, these efforts reflect a growing recognition of the urgent need to target super pollutants and integrate comprehensive climate strategies.
Total Climate Accounting™ helps businesses maximize strategic climate action
Launched in September 2024, the Global Heat Reduction Initiative brings advanced climate accounting metrics to help companies and other decision makers identify mitigation strategies that can most rapidly and responsibly reduce excess trapped heat in the atmosphere. For businesses looking to reach their net zero goals, GHR offers a powerful and practical solution — and that solution, at a high level, is Total Climate Accounting™.
Total Climate Accounting™ offers a new lens for strategic climate action by measuring all climate drivers — not just CO2 — over any timeframe. Most significantly, this approach goes beyond the standard CO2e calculated over 100 years by accounting for the fast-acting heat impacts of super pollutants. Methane, for example, can persist in our atmosphere for 10-12 years and, during its time in the atmosphere, it boasts a warming potency that is up to 150 times that of CO2. Black carbon, on the other hand, may only persist in the atmosphere for 4-12 days but, while it’s there, it packs a whopping warming potency of 52,000 times that of CO2.
In other words, Total Climate Accounting™ provides verified heat impacts over timeframes that matter — not just 100 years, but also the next 10, 20, 30 years and beyond — along with quantified community health benefits. This means that companies can make the most of strategic climate mitigation investments, such as offsetting and insetting, decarbonizing scopes 1-3, and reaching beyond the value chain.
Unique among climate mitigation strategies, GHR translates well-known science into action that unlocks the true power of the private sector to make a significant impact on climate. Specifically, Total Climate Accounting™ is applied in three ways:
1) Total Climate Footprint™
2) Heat Reduction Credits and Projects
3) Advisory and Partnerships
Total Climate Footprint™ includes everything offered by a conventional carbon footprint — plus data to drive more strategic investments and greater impact. It covers not just CO2 and other greenhouse gases, but also all major super pollutants, Earth’s reflectivity, and heat reduction impacts over any timeframe.
With the GHR Registry and Heat Reduction Investments in the voluntary carbon market coming in 2025, GHR emphasizes the importance of Heat Reduction Credits, which act as a bridge connecting present-day climate needs with future visions for net zero emissions across all sectors of business and society. This form of climate investment offers additional information, empowering companies with the ability to calculate the impact of their credits over any timeframe, not just the standard 100 years. Companies will be able to see the impact they’re making over five-, 10-, 20-, and 30-year timelines, which are absolutely vital to achieving maximum net zero progress.
The GHR approach maximizes your climate impact for every dollar spent by offering three primary benefits to businesses. By driving climate outcomes now — without losing the long-term goal of CO2 reduction — GHR provides increased return on investment. Plus, with a strategic focus on near-term horizons, businesses choosing GHR can work within corporate planning timeframes. Finally, GHR offers credit for the progress you’re already making but not yet measuring — for example, if you’re electrifying your fleets or transitioning to renewable energy sources, you’ll be eligible to earn credit for black carbon reductions.
And while conventional climate accounting has provided valuable information about GHG levels and reductions, carbon markets and carbon accounting — used worldwide to drive climate action — have systematically undervalued or completely overlooked both the heat-trapping potency of super pollutants and the societal benefits embedded in the act of urgently reducing them from our atmosphere.
This means businesses and governments have essentially been operating with only half the data they need to make informed decisions about climate action. GHR aims to disrupt the climate mitigation status quo with measurable, data-driven efficacy.
Looking Ahead
As the impacts of climate change intensify, the latest science is clear: addressing carbon dioxide is necessary but not sufficient. By targeting super pollutants such as methane, black carbon, nitrous oxide, and hydrofluorocarbons, organizations can support urgent and strategic climate action. This approach provides additional time for adaptation by reducing the rate at which our planet warms during the next several decades until the full benefits of decarbonization are realized.
Most importantly, the scientific consensus also emphasizes that reducing super pollutants from our atmosphere is essential to offering relief to those already suffering from the extreme and multi-faceted impacts of climate change. Attacking super pollutants is our strongest lever in the near term, while reducing our reliance on fossil fuels will realize the massive benefits of decreasing our overall CO2 footprint over the long term.
For a more in-depth discussion of these topics and the Global Heat Reduction Initiative, be sure to watch our webinar replay, featuring Dr. Drew Shindell of Duke University and Kiff Gallagher, Executive Director of GHR.
Have more questions? Get in touch with us today.
Media Outlet
In March 2025, over 100 experts from more than 40 countries gathered in Bilbao, Spain, for the first lead author meeting of the 2027 IPCC Methodology Report on Short-Lived Climate Forcers (SLCFs). This pivotal meeting marks a milestone towards establishing a standardized approach to measuring and managing super pollutants, such as black carbon and low-level ozone. These pollutants are known for their potent impact on global warming and air quality, making their accurate measurement crucial for effective climate action.
Imagine pollutants that can warm the planet faster than carbon dioxide but disappear from the atmosphere in a matter of days to years. That’s the reality of super pollutants. Experts at the IPCC meeting stressed the urgent need to tackle these pollutants to make a real dent in climate change. According to a recent Forbes article, cutting super pollutants can slow the rate of warming and improve air quality almost immediately. It’s like hitting the brakes on a speeding car—quick and effective.
Black carbon, a major super pollutant, is the second largest man-made contributor to global warming. The Clean Air Fund emphasizes that tackling black carbon is crucial, as it contributes to millions of premature deaths each year. This highlights the urgent need for integrated measures to address both climate change and air pollution, paving the way for a healthier and more sustainable future.
The Climate and Clean Air Conference 2025, held in Brasília, Brazil, brought together global leaders to accelerate action on super pollutants ahead of COP30. New initiatives included UNEP’s updated Global Strategy to promote low-sulfur fuels and clean diesel fleets, and a CCAC report on black soldier fly technology to cut methane from organic waste. Subnational governments reaffirmed their commitment to tackling super pollutants, with several cities joining the Lowering Organic Waste Methane (LOW-M) initiative.
Countries are also starting to take notice. More and more nations are including super pollutants in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). By addressing super pollutants, they can help close the global emissions gap and keep the planet’s temperature rise within 1.5°C. The benefits go beyond climate—reducing super pollutants can improve food security, health, and equity, making it a win-win for everyone.
Focusing on super pollutants offers a promising new frontier, and it’s getting worldwide attention. Supporting initiatives and policies aimed at reducing super pollutants can lead to significant progress towards a sustainable and healthier future.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–
SCS Global Services created Total Climate Accountingᵀᴹ to enable companies, cities and organizations to help slow the rate of warming now by measuring and managing climate super pollutants. We offer two powerful tools:
- Total Climate Footprintᵀᴹ: Everything you get from your carbon footprint, plus additional heat reduction data over target-aligned timeframes (2030, 2040, 2050…) to drive more strategic investments and greater impact. Learn more.
- GHR Registry Projects and Credits: This registry offers super pollutant credits (“super tons”) that each represent 1 tCO₂e plus specific, verified atmospheric heat reduction data measured over any timeframe (e.g. 5, 15, 25 years). Learn more.
With Total Climate Accountingᵀᴹ, organizations can take a proactive approach to climate action, addressing both long-term and short-term pollutants on their path to net zero.
Media Outlet
The Global Heat Reduction Initiative (GHR) has released Version 2.0 of its Registry Standard, ensuring that Heat Reduction Credits seamlessly align with the integrity and transparency standards guiding the global voluntary carbon market, including Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) and International Carbon Reduction and Offset Alliance (ICROA) accreditation requirements. GHR plans to pursue formal accreditation under both programs in 2026.
The first of its kind in the voluntary carbon market, GHR’s framework accounts for all heat drivers including super pollutants like methane and HFCs, and air polluting aerosols like black carbon, and quantifies their climate impacts to accelerate global heat reduction.
Key revisions to the Registry Standard include bolstered social and environmental safeguards and expanded stakeholder engagement requirements. Incorporating these updates ensures Heat Reduction Credits remain interoperable with traditional carbon credits, building long-term market integrity and confidence.
“Version 2.0 underscores GHR’s continued leadership in integrating critical near-term reduction efforts into the world’s leading climate action standards,” said Kiff Gallagher, GHR Executive Director. “Project developers and buyers can have the confidence that Heat Reduction Credits meet the highest standards for scientific rigor and transparency.”
With five methodologies released and more in development, the GHR Standard provides public and private organizations with a credible pathway to quantify, verify, and finance heat reduction initiatives that address the full range of climate forcers across target-aligned timescales.
“The GHR Registry Standard brings an unprecedented level of precision to the climate marketplace,” said Linda Brown, Co-founder and Senior Vice President of SCS Global Services. “Version 2.0 builds on our commitment to uphold environmental and social integrity while translating the latest climate science into actionable, verifiable standards.”
The GHR Registry Standard is grounded in the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) science and reviewed by experts from the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC), convened by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). This scientific foundation ensures the framework addresses all heat drivers of climate change including those historically undervalued while delivering climate impact data beyond conventional CO₂e reporting.
The GHR Registry Standard (Version 2.0) is now available here. Organizations can learn more at heatreduction.com/registry.
Media Contact:
About the Global Heat Reduction Initiative
Global Heat Reduction Initiative combines cutting-edge methodology with expert advisory, enabling organizations to understand their total climate footprint, plan comprehensive mitigation strategies, and accelerate heat reduction. With this holistic view, organizations can prioritize interventions with the greatest climate return per dollar spent, unlock faster climate progress, and deliver immediate local benefits. Learn more at www.heatreduction.com.
About SCS Global Services
SCS Global Services is an international leader in third-party environmental and sustainability verification, certification, auditing, and standards development with over 40 years of experience. Its programs span a cross-section of industries, recognizing achievements in climate mitigation, green building, product manufacturing, food and agriculture, forestry, consumer products, and more. Headquartered in Emeryville, California, SCS has representatives and affiliate offices throughout the Americas, Asia/Pacific, Europe, and Africa. Its broad network of auditors are experts in their fields, and the company is a trusted partner to companies, agencies, and advocacy organizations due to its dedication to quality and professionalism. SCS is a California-chartered Benefit Corporation, reflecting its commitment to socially and environmentally responsible business practices. SCS is also a Participant of the United Nations Global Compact and adheres to its principles-based approach to responsible business. For more information, visit www.SCSGlobalServices.com.
Media Outlet
Founding executive director to share insights on practical pathways to decarbonize supply chains at premier Washington, DC conference
Kiff Gallagher | Oct 27, 2025
The Global Heat Reduction Initiative is pleased to announce that Kiff Gallagher, founding executive director, will participate as a featured speaker at The Scope 3 Innovation Forum USA, taking place December 3-4, 2025 in Washington DC.
The two-day conference will convene over 150 cross-industry experts focused on practical steps businesses can take to engage key stakeholders, decarbonize supply chains, and achieve net zero targets. Gallagher’s participation underscores the Global Heat Reduction Initiative’s commitment to advancing climate solutions that move beyond targets to tangible action.
The forum addresses how climate ambition is driving a fundamental shift from compliance to competition, innovation, and implementation – a transition that aligns directly with the Global Heat Reduction Initiative’s mission to accelerate meaningful emissions reductions across value chains.
The conference will explore how leading businesses are accelerating decarbonization through deeper supplier engagement and empowerment, as well as how companies can build internal alignment and adapt business models to unlock commercial opportunities in Scope 3 emissions reduction. Sessions will also examine the imperative to shift beyond carbon tunnel vision by integrating nature, culture, and consumer engagement.
Operating under Chatham House rules, the forum creates a safe space for participants to discuss what’s working, what’s not, and what comes next—enabling the kind of candid conversation that drives genuine progress rather than corporate posturing. Gallagher’s expertise in cross-sector collaboration and systems-level change makes him a valuable contributor to discussions on overcoming the practical barriers to supply chain decarbonization.
The Scope 3 Innovation Forum brings together leaders from companies including Colgate-Palmolive, Microsoft, and other major corporations committed to advancing climate action through practical, implementable strategies.
Interested to join the conversation? Secure your place here.
Media Outlet