Black Carbon is the world's super pollutant, not only responsible for approximately half of today’s climate warming (Johnstone, 2026), but also a deadly killer harming our health. Air pollution claims between 7-9 million lives every year (Klein and Thompson, 2025). Black carbon enters our bloodstreams, leading to diseases such as asthma, heart attacks, cancer, miscarriages and still births. To put that into perspective, that's 6-7 times the death toll from traffic accidents, and hundreds of times more than war, terrorism and natural disasters combined (Klein and Thompson, 2025).
These effects are unequally distributed across the globe. The effects are deadliest for energy-poor communities that directly burn wood and charcoal in confined areas to stay warm, breathing in the byproducts.
Action on black carbon is the “emergency brake” we need. Tackling it has the potential to slow near-term temperature rise four times faster than action on CO₂ alone (Johnstone, 2026).
That is exactly what MAT ZERO is tackling. MAT ZERO, described as an innovative domestic heating solution, provides a safe heating solution - heating the person, not the space. We deliver warmth safely and efficiently, without the byproducts costing lives.
Photo credits: Johnstone, A. (2026). New black carbon images – Climate Outreach. [online] Climatevisuals.org. Available at: https://www.climatevisuals.org/new-black-carbon-images/ [Accessed 2 Jun. 2026].
Klein, E. and Thompson, D. (2025). Abundance. Simon and Schuster.
