Vital Strategies, 2023
Implementing Partners: Clean Air Fund, Vital Strategies, Barranquilla City Government, Energy Foundation China, DKI Jakarta Provincial Government, Kampala Capital City Authority, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Accra Metropolitan Assembly and others
Published In: COP28 Prospectus of Climate-Health Solutions, 2023
Air pollution poses a major threat to health, particularly for vulnerable groups like children. It tends to affect poor and marginalized communities the most, exacerbating global inequality and environmental injustice. The health sector can be a useful lever to persuade decision makers to act on climate policy and air pollution. Air pollution can cause serious health problems, increasing the risk of respiratory infections, heart disease, and lung cancer. Cities that monitor air and climate parameters can track quality improvements and quantify short-term health benefits, which are often more tangible than longer-term climate impacts.
Vital Strategies assembled the efforts of six cities on utilizing health data and engaging with the health sector in advancing climate and clean air action, illustrating the role the health sector can play in accelerating clean air and climate action. The selected cities represent a diversity in size, socio-economic development, geography, and demographics to show that solutions are possible and attainable in most circumstances. These cities include Accra, Barranquilla, Beijing, Jakarta, Kampala and New York.
Staff from Ministry of Environment and Forestry on a routine maintainance of air quality management system at Bundaran Hotel Indonesia, Central Jakarta, Indonesia.
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Identification and analysis of the sources and impact of air pollution can enable effective policy making. In Beijing, the city government invited public health researchers to collect evidence on the health impact of air pollution from different sources, resulting in skyrocketing numbers of publications (from 685 to 15,200 English language publications) and a nearly six fold increase in air pollution control financing from 2013 to 2017. In New York, the collection of data enabled the vote to enact the Clean Heating Law in 2010 that mandated the use of cleaner fuels for residential building by 2015.
Interventions to tackle air pollution can be further prioritized based on health and economic costs. In Jakarta, the city government found that regular testing of vehicular emissions had the potential to yield the most cost-effective health benefits.
Emphasis on health benefits of tackling air pollution can be an effective way of gaining public support for proposed actions and promoting behavioral change at the community level. In Kampala, the expertise and credibility of the health sector community was used to develop and deliver health-related messaging to raise awareness on household waste burning. In Jakarta, medical students conducted health promotion and education on health impacts of air pollution. They also performed general health assessment, such as checking blood pressure, blood uric acid level, and blood glucose level.
In Barranquilla, Colombia, the city restored 285 public spaces into recreational parks available for community use and health promotion, allowing 95% of the population to reach a park within an 8 minute walk, reducing accidents, greenhouse gas emissions and improving health.
Some cities have clear data on the impact of their interventions. For instance, the number of premature deaths attributable to short-term fine particulate matter (PM2.5) air pollution exposure decreased from 24,700 in 2013 to 17,500 in 2017 in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region during the period when the Beijing Clean Air Action Plan was implemented. The residential coal ban alone is estimated to have averted around 1,000 premature deaths annually
In the case of New York City, the pollutant levels have declined dramatically since the start of their air quality program in 2008, resulting in an estimated prevention of 290 premature deaths, 80 hospital admissions for respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, and 550 emergency department visits for asthma each year.
To have a lasting tangible impact, climate and clean air action requires the involvement of diverse actors including health, environment, transport, energy, industry and enforcement. Having cross-sector collaboration and coordination is critical to making the multi-stakeholder systems work. Cities need a cooperative setting with well-established mechanisms of knowledge sharing across agencies, so that all stakeholders involved are aware of their roles and responsibilities to achieve the objectives of the programs.
Staff from Ministry of Environment and Forestry on a routine maintainance of air quality management system at Bundaran Hotel Indonesia, Central Jakarta, Indonesia.
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