Striving for Clean Air in South Asia

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00:09 South Asia is home to 9 of the world's 10 cities with the worst air pollution.

00:16 It causes an estimated 2 million premature deaths across

00:20 the region each year and incurs significant economic costs.

00:25 Concentrations of fine particulate matter in some of the region's poor

00:29 and most densely populated areas are up to 20 times higher

00:34 than what the World Health Organisation considers healthy.

00:39 Air pollution can cause stunting and impair children's cognitive development.

00:44 It can also cause respiratory infections and chronic and debilitating diseases.

00:51 This dries up healthcare costs,

00:54 lowers the country's productive capacity,

00:56 and leads to lost day's work.

01:02 Large industries,

01:03 power plants and vehicles

01:05 are dominant sources of air pollution around the world.

01:09 But in South Asia,

01:11 other sources such as combustion of solid fuels for cooking and heating,

01:16 emissions from small industries such as brick kilns,

01:20 burning of municipal and agricultural waste,

01:23 and cremation

01:24 make substantial additional contributions.

01:28 Air pollution travels long distances,

01:31 it crosses municipal,

01:32 state,

01:33 and national boundaries

01:35 and gets trapped in large air sheds.

01:38 The good news is that there

01:39 are economically feasible and cost-effective solutions

01:43 to curb air pollution and save tens of thousands of lives each year.

01:50 A roadmap for cleaner air includes 3 phases.

01:55 Phase 1 sets the condition for airshed wide coordination

01:59 by expanding air pollution monitoring beyond the big cities,

02:03 sharing data with the public,

02:06 and strengthening scientific institutes to better analyze airsheds.

02:12 In phase two,

02:13 abatement interventions are broadened beyond the

02:16 traditional targets of power plants,

02:18 large factories,

02:19 and transportation.

02:21 At the same time,

02:22 airshed-wide standards can be introduced.

02:26 And in phase 3,

02:27 economic incentives are fine-tuned to enable

02:30 private sector solutions to address distributional impacts

02:34 and to exploit synergies

02:36 with climate change policies.

02:39 The road to achieving clean air in South Asia is not an easy one,

02:44 but the time to act is now.

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South Asia is home to 9 of the world's 10 cities with the worst air pollution. It causes an estimated 2 million premature deaths across the region each year and incurs significant economic costs. Concentrations of fine particulate matter in some of the region's poor and most densely populated areas are up to 20 times higher than what the World Health Organisation considers healthy. Air pollution can cause stunting and impair children's cognitive development. It can also cause respiratory infections and chronic and debilitating diseases. This dries up healthcare costs, lowers the country's productive capacity, and leads to lost day's work. Large industries, power plants and vehicles are dominant sources of air pollution around the world. But in South Asia, other sources such as combustion of solid fuels for cooking and heating, emissions from small industries such as brick kilns, burning of municipal and agricultural waste, and cremation make substantial additional contributions. Air pollution travels long distances, it crosses municipal, state, and national boundaries and gets trapped in large air sheds. The good news is that there are economically feasible and cost-effective solutions to curb air pollution and save tens of thousands of lives each year. A roadmap for cleaner air includes 3 phases. Phase 1 sets the condition for airshed wide coordination by expanding air pollution monitoring beyond the big cities, sharing data with the public, and strengthening scientific institutes to better analyze airsheds. In phase two, abatement interventions are broadened beyond the traditional targets of power plants, large factories, and transportation. At the same time, airshed-wide standards can be introduced. And in phase 3, economic incentives are fine-tuned to enable private sector solutions to address distributional impacts and to exploit synergies with climate change policies. The road to achieving clean air in South Asia is not an easy one, but the time to act is now.

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PollutionWB Final

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