Tag Archives: Air Quality

Towards Better Air Quality in Egypt

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THE CHALLENGE

In Cairo, every September, families close their windows, parents worry about their children’s coughs, and outdoor workers brace themselves for weeks of heavy haze and burning smells. The annual Black Cloud season, stretching from September to December, had become part of life in Egypt’s capital. During this season, emissions from open burning of rice stubble routinely adds to those from solid waste burning, transportation, and industry, driving air pollution to dangerous levels.

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Tackling the jobs challenges of coal transition

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COP26 helped focus global attention on the challenge of transitioning out of coal. In recent1543136737_a282ca38fe_hero-k months, however, the war in Ukraine has led to a rise in coal use, as a short-term replacement of Russian oil and gas. But in the medium term, both advanced and developing economies will need to accelerate the coal transition to meet Paris Agreement targets. Decisive actions and financial resources are essential, but success will ultimately depend on effective policies to deal with the resulting disruption to jobs, reflected in the call for a “just transition.”

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Air pollution kills – Evidence from a global analysis of exposure and poverty

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Globally, poor air quality is estimated to cause some 7 million deaths each year, as it05.18_air_pollution_kills_blog_image increases the risk of a wide range of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. Yet the exposure to and impact of air pollution are not equally distributed. Air pollution is particularly prevalent in industrializing developing economies. Less stringent air quality regulations, the prevalence of older polluting machinery and vehicles, subsidized fossil fuels, congested urban transport systems, rapidly developing industrial sectors, and cut-and-burn practices in agriculture are all contributing to heightened pollution levels. The lack of affordable quality healthcare services further increases air pollution related mortality.

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In India, air quality has been improving despite the COVID-19 lockdown

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India is home to some of the world’s most polluted cities. An unintended but welcomeshutterstock_761795974 consequence of the lockdown to contain the coronavirus has been improved air quality throughout the country.  Our assessment of India’s air quality trends has found another underlying and positive trend: air quality has been improving across the country since 2018, and this has nothing to do with the COVID-19 lockdown. 

Growing Threat of Air Pollution

Poor air quality has come to be recognized as a serious health risk and drag on economic development in India. Air quality has been deteriorating across the country since the 1990s, and in 2017 as much as 97 percent of the country’s population was estimated to be exposed to unhealthy levels of ambient PM2.5.  Though there are many types of air pollutants, these small particulates in the air, about one-thirtieth the width of a human hair, are the most harmful to human health.  They can penetrate deep into the lungs, enter the bloodstream and cause deadly illnesses such as lung cancer, stroke, and heart disease.

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eC2: Air Quality Management in Vietnam, Air Emission Sectoral Data Verification

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Deadline: 27-May-2019 at 11:59:59 PM (Eastern Time – Washington D.C.) index

The scope of work described here focuses on the verification of the modelling data that has been used and subsequently additional collection and validation of activity data and characteristics for key emission sources at the regional level of larger Hanoi region. This work shall be done mostly in close cooperation with Hanoi and secondly in cooperation with MONRE and Bac Ninh and Hung Yen. The objective of the assignment under this Terms of Reference is to assess and collect the data gaps and propose the best set of regionally attributed activity data for the key sources of air pollution in the different sectors. The final datasets shall be suitable for incorporation in the Vietnam GAINS model and discussed and consulted with IIASA, CEMM, MONRE, Hanoi, Bac Ninh and Hung Yen and their respective Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DONRE) as well as World Bank. The World Bank will support and facilitate the consultations with MONRE, Hanoi, Bac Ninh and Hung Yen.

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