Your climate strategy has a major blind spot: How to measure and manage super pollutants now

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.