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Simon air2/10/2024 The report found that full coordination between Pakistan, India, Nepal, and Bangladesh would significantly lower the costs of achieving this target compared to scenarios where countries act independently. Last year’s “Striving for Clean Air” report identified six key South Asian airsheds and developed scenarios for reducing average PM 2.5 levels to the World Health Organization’s interim air quality target of 35 µg/m³. Cooperation on air pollution mitigation can lower costsĪir pollution knows no borders, making both urban-rural and regional cooperation crucial to addressing the issue, the World Bank’s Raiser stressed. “With a modest public investment, we discovered that they could leverage more from the private sector,” Zhao noted. The World Bank also played a significant role in catalyzing early action, providing China with a $1 billion loan a decade ago to address air pollution in Beijing. He highlighted the replacement of old coal furnaces with energy-efficient electric heat pumps, often augmented by natural gas when economically viable, as a key strategy in the residential sector. Zhao attributed China’s success to a multi-pronged approach implemented systematically across various sectors, including industry, transportation, and building heating and cooling. “The challenge is that to address the issue of air quality we need to work on several sources of pollutants at the same time.” Chinese Vice Minister: How we cut air pollution Air pollution over Shanghai, China.Ĭhina’s experience in curbing air pollution can serve as an inspiring example for other Asian nations, according to Zhao. “These are huge co-benefits and create a great potential for triple wins,” said Raiser. Furthermore, methane emissions could be further reduced by 25%. Additionally, emissions of black carbon, another short-lived climate pollutant that accelerates Himalayan glacier melt, would be reduced by 80%. These benefits include a 25% reduction in emissions of CO2, carbon dioxide, and methane, a gas 28 times more potent than CO2 in terms of its global warming potential. World Bank Vice President for South Asia Martin Raiser highlighted the potential “triple wins” of reducing annual air pollution levels to the World Health Organization’s interim air quality target of 35 µg/m³ of PM2.5. In densely populated areas of the Indo-Gangetic Plain, which stretches from Pakistan to Bangladesh and across the Himalayan foothills of southern Nepal, PM2.5 levels in many locations exceed 20 times the World Health Organization’s recommended annual guideline of 5 micrograms per cubic meter of air (µg/m3). The region is home to 37 of the 40 most polluted cities in the world. South Asia’s air pollution claims two million lives annually Zhao Yingmin, Vice Minister at China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment, and Dr Farhna Ahmed, Secretary of Bangladesh’s Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate.Įxcessive air pollution across South Asia is estimated to cause the deaths of approximately two million people each year, making it one of the most polluted regions worldwide. He and other officials at the event emphasized how China’s experience could serve as an inspiration for South Asian countries currently grappling with some of the world’s highest pollution levels. The nexus of air pollution and climate change is also receiving increasing attention in the development sector, as evidenced by a World Bank-hosted discussion on Friday featuring top officials from China and Bangladesh.Īt the event, Zhao Yingmin, China’s Vice Minister of Ecology and Environment, described how the country has reduced the most health-damaging pollutant, PM 2.5, by as much as 55% in the past decade in prefecture-level cities across the country, administrative centers that rank second only to provincial capitals. The UN’s 28th Conference of Parties on climate change has seen top-level participants from the World Health Organization (WHO), the UAE presidency, and noted expert bodies discuss the estimated 7-8 million deaths annually linked to air pollution. From left to right: Martin Raiser, World Bank Vice President for South Asia, Dr Farhna Ahmed, Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and Anna Wellenstein World Bank Regional Director, Sustainable Development, East Asia and PacificĪir pollution and climate change have never received as much combined attention, at such a high level, as at COP28 in Dubai.
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