This calls for scaling up efforts and political will to take action and make substantial investments in renewable sources of energy, cook stoves and clean fuels so as to tackle global public health emergences.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says that global urban air pollution levels increased by eight per cent between 2008 and 2013.
“More than 80 per cent of people living in urban areas that monitor air pollution are exposed to air quality levels that exceed WHO limits, threatening lives, productivity and economies,” says the UN Agency in one of its publications.
By reducing air pollution levels, countries can reduce the burden of disease from stroke, heart disease, lung cancer, and both chronic and acute respiratory diseases including asthma. This could eventually give a country a relatively clean bill of health and reduce expenses on public healthcare.
Giving details about the effects of air pollution on human health, World Health Organisation (WHO) says that outdoor air pollution in both cities and rural areas was estimated to cause 3.7 million premature deaths worldwide in 2012. Some 88 per cent of those premature deaths occurred in low and middle-income countries.
“Some deaths may be attributed to more than one risk factor at the same time. Both smoking and ambient air pollution, for example, affect lung cancer. Some lung cancer deaths could have been averted by improving ambient air quality, or by reducing tobacco smoking,” says the world body.
A 2013 assessment by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) concluded that outdoor air pollution is carcinogenic to humans, with the particulate matter component of air pollution most closely associated with increased cancer incidence, especially cancer of the lung. An association also has observed relationship between outdoor air pollution and increase in cancer of the urinary tract and bladder.
Most sources of outdoor air pollution are well beyond the control of individuals and demand action by cities, as well as national and international policymakers in sectors like transport, energy waste management, buildings and agriculture.
“A healthy environment is essential to healthy people and our aspirations for a better world under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. We are indeed making progress on air pollution, but the fact remains that many people are still breathing air outside of WHO standards,” explained United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Executive Director Achim Steiner during the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) held in Nairobi recently.
“The health, social and economic costs are massive and rising,” he added.
UNEP’s study on 10 areas for policy intervention provides a roadmap for countries to follow as they look to reduce air pollution and a support in every step on the way.
According to UNEP’s Actions on Air Quality recent report, there are improvements in areas such as access to cleaner cooking fuels and stoves, renewables, fuel sulphur content and public transport.
The report cites 97 countries that have increased the percentage of households which have access to cleaner burning fuels to more than 85 per cent.
“This is a key move to tackle indoor air pollution, which claims over half the seven million lives,” reads part of the report.
A joint research by UNEP, Bloomberg and the Frankfurt School has revealed that at least 82 countries out of 194 analyzed have incentives that promote investment in renewable energy production, cleaner production, energy efficiency and pollution control equipment.
“For the first time last year, renewables accounted for a majority of the new electricity-generating capacity added around the world, at an investment of $286bn,” says the research findings.
However, action in other areas is less impressive. Policies and standards on clean fuels and vehicles could reduce emissions by 90 per cent, but only 29 per cent of countries worldwide have adopted Euro 4 emissions standards or above. Meanwhile, less than 20 per cent of countries regulate open waste burning, which is a leading cause of air pollution.
The Actions on Air Quality report focuses on some basic measures to improve air quality. It shows that the most countries world-wide are yet to adopt most of the air quality policy actions, but highlights many good examples that can be followed.
More than three billion people still use solid fuels and inefficient cook stoves, but the Seychelles was able to improve indoor air quality by transitioning the whole country from solid fuels and inefficient cook stoves to liquefied petroleum gas.
“Only a quarter of countries worldwide have advanced fuels and vehicles standards, which can significantly reduce small particulate matter pollution, especially in cities.
Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda, decided that from 1 January 2015 only low sulphur fuels would be allowed in their countries. This reduced their emissions by over 90 per cent,” the report highlights.
On a different scale, electric cars have been on the increase, with strategies being developed in many countries around the world. One-third of all cars bought in Norway are now electric as a result of incentives instituted by the government.
However, some countries and cities have been able to increase waste recycling, reducing the need to burn waste. In Brazil, for example, millions of hectares of land are under conservation agriculture, which leaves crop residue from previous harvests on the land rather than burning it.
The majority of countries around the world have now put in place national air quality standards. India for example, with major air quality challenges in many cities, has established air quality laws and regulation and also an implementation strategy for these laws.
WHO has also come up with suggestions on how to curb outdoor pollution. One suggestion is that industries should employ clean technologies that reduce industrial smokestack emissions and improve management of urban and agricultural waste through capture of methane gas emitted from waste sites as an alternative to incineration.
The transport industry should also shift to clean modes of power generation. This could be done by promoting rapid urban transit and walking and cycling networks in cities. Emphasis should also be placed on rail transport for goods and passengers and a shift to cleaner heavy duty diesel vehicles and low-emissions vehicles and fuels.
A shift to cleaner environment would also involve urban planning, focusing on improving the energy efficiency of buildings and making cities more compact, and thus energy efficient.
An important move would be to review power generation by raising the use of low-emission fuels and renewable power sources like solar, wind and hydropower and creating mini-grids and rooftop solar power generation.
“Waste management would also go a long way towards reducing outdoor air pollution. Strategies for waste reduction, waste separation, recycling and reuse and waste reprocessing should be drawn and implemented,” says the UN Agency, adding that there should also be strategies to improve methods of biological waste management such as anaerobic waste digestion to produce biogas and low cost alternatives to open incineration of solid waste.
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