Climate Change, Short Lived Climate Pollutants, Black Carbon and Clean Diesel

(Diesel Technology Forum) Thanks to the introduction of ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel, more efficient engines and more effective emissions control technologies, diesel engines, vehicles and equipment are a small and declining contributor of black carbon emissions globally. Technology and policy opportunities exist for accelerating turnover from old to new technology diesel in the U.S. Globally, accelerating the introduction of lowsulfur diesel fuels enables similar progress to eliminating fine particulate emissions from all diesel engines.

Over the last few years there has been growing attention to black carbon and its potential contribution to global warming. The scientific and policymaking communities acknowledge that black carbon plays a role in climate change by heating our planet and altering precipitation patterns. Diesel engines are one of many sources of black carbon emissions and controlling diesel emissions is one of the most costeffective and immediate term strategies to reduce emissions and help cool a warming planet.

Thanks to changes in domestic fuel composition along with advances in engine design and emissions control technology, black carbon emissions have been virtually eliminated from tailpipe emissions from new diesel vehicles and equipment in the U.S. Regulations in place for heavy-duty truck engines beginning in model year 2007 and further tightened rules for model year 2010 engines have required a 98 percent reduction in particulate matter emissions – a leading contributor to black carbon. Similar standards have been in place since 2014 for the wide variety of off-road equipment types. Other countries have taken note of the advances made in the U.S. and are expanding the introduction of clean diesel technologies in part to reduce black carbon emissions.

These clean diesel advances are strongly supported by the United Nations Environment Programme which is advocating their adoption in countries around the world. The introduction of clean diesel technologies around the world can greatly help cool a warming planet by eliminating diesel sources of black carbon emissions.

We have compiled several definitions, statistics and facts about black carbon and clean diesel technology in order to promote greater understanding about the subject and the shrinking contribution of U.S. diesel emissions to the global black carbon inventory. READ MORE