Page 8 - AsiaElec Week 36 2021

AsiaElec CLIMATE AsiaElec

Cleaner air can contribute

towards climate goals

GLOBAL THE World Bank has warned air pollution is consistently associated with heart attacks.
the world’s leading environmental risk to health, Many of these same leading air pollutants
costing $8.1 trillion, or 6.1% of GDP, in 2019, also contribute to climate change and are emitted
and has identified coal-fired power plants and from the same sources – meaning our efforts to
diesel-fuelled vehicles as key causes of poor air manage air quality can have the knock-on effect
quality across the world. of also contributing to our climate goals.
The World Bank has warned air pollution is In China’s Hebei Province, the World Bank
the world’s leading environmental risk to health, has been supporting officials to target diesel and
costing $8.1 trillion, or 6.1% of GDP, in 2019, coal emissions, as well as industrial emissions,
and has identified coal-fired power plants and in an effort to reduce concentrations of PM2.5.
diesel-fuelled vehicles as key causes of poor air Hebei’s annual average PM2.5 concentration
quality across the world. level has decreased more than 40% over a six-
Improving air quality is also a key way to pro- year period.
mote renewables energy and to meet the Paris Deploying cleaner stoves in two of the region’s
Agreement’s climate goals, the bank argued. cities alone contributed to a reduction of annual
Karin Kemper, the World Bank’s global direc- carbon dioxide emissions equivalent to taking
tor for environment, natural resources and blue 1.2mn passenger vehicles off the road every year.
economy, said that 90% of the world’s popula- Other key ways to reduce pollution and meet
tion lives in areas where pollution levels exceed climate goals include improving the availability
WHO guidelines. of data on air quality.
She also warned that developing economies Again, access to technology and data is une-
in South Asia, Africa and the Middle East face ven across the global. For example, ground-level
exposure rates to fine inhalable aerosol particles monitors that measure air quality are more
(known as to PM2.5) five to 10 times higher than numerous in the developed world. High-income
in wealthier economies in North America. countries, for example, have one monitor for
What this means is that tackling air pollution every 370,000 people, while low-income coun-
represents an obvious component of the World tries have just one for every 65mn.
Bank’s mission to eradicate poverty and promote Finally, cross-border co-operation is crucial,
shared prosperity. as pollution in rural areas, and not just in cities,
The bank has called for policymakers and can contribute to poor urban air quality. The use
development partners to concentrate on three of nitrogen-based fertilisers, the burning of solid
areas to reduce pollution, noting that in most wastes, and the existence of crop residues in agri-
areas cutting pollution is almost the same as culture can be sources of air pollution.
promoting renewables energy and achieving In addition, naturally occurring dust, which
climate goals. can be increased through land, water and farm-
Recent World Bank research on the health ing practices, also travels great distances across
effects of different sources and chemical compo- countries through sandstorms and wind, and
sitions of air pollution concluded that emissions has been shown to pose similar health threats to
from coal-fired power plants and diesel vehicles other types of particulate pollution.™
are particularly toxic to humans and are most

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 36 08•September•2021