How can fast growing cities keep air pollution in check?
How can fast growing cities keep air pollution in check? A recent World Bank report highlighting IIASA research explores this tricky question, looking at the kinds of policies and actions cities have taken to tackle poor local air quality, thus providing lessons for other cities.
The experiences of three cities – Beijing, Delhi, and Mexico City – offers some lessons on how governments can tackle the growing challenge of air pollution. Notably, there is no silver bullet, and air pollution can only be tackled through sustained political commitment.
“Federal governments need to proactively offer incentives to state and city governments to implement air quality management programs,” comments Urvashi Narain, Lead Economist of the World Bank.
The World Bank report takes up findings from an independent study by IIASA and the Council on Energy, Environment, and Water (CEEW), demonstrating that a significant share of air pollutant emissions in India still originates from sources associated with poverty and underdevelopment such as solid fuel use for cooking, poor waste management practices, and crop residue burning. Consequently, while pollution levels are high in urban areas (Indian cities are among the most polluted in the world), the sources and solutions are only partly within cities. A joint study, conducted by IIASA and the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) in Nagpur (India), found that nearly 60% of pollution in Delhi is caused by fine particulate matter (PM2.5) that originates from outside.
Read more at International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
Photo Credit: alvpics via Pixabay
