Empowering the youth for climate action is an innovative strategy for creating public awareness and their effective engagement in locally-led clean air initiatives
Air pollution is everywhere. This has severe impacts on human health and entire ecosystems. Contributing directly to climate crisis, evidence suggests that air pollution disproportionally affects children, the elderly and socially marginalised populations. Despite notable progress, the existing efforts at tackling air pollution are not enough to ensure clean air for all.
Air pollution is both a cause and effect of the global climate crisis as they feed on each other. Reducing air pollution will help improve our ecosystems and human health such as cardiovascular and respiratory conditions. Additionally, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) warns that air pollution is the greatest environmental health risk of our time. It is increasingly a silent killer that now claims more than 8.1 million lives every year.
Again, mortality data due to air pollution presents an alarming situation worldwide. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), air pollution caused about 6.7 million deaths in 2019. Of these, almost 85 per cent are attributable to non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including ischemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and diabetes. This makes air pollution the second leading cause of NCDs globally after tobacco.
A worrying scenario is that our cities are facing increasing risks of air pollution. Kathmandu is the 91st most polluted city in the world. According to a report of the Health Effects Institute 2020, deaths attributable to air pollution in Kathmandu reached 5,080 in 2019. The ground reality is that poor, socially marginalised and vulnerable communities continue to be at a high risk and most affected.
Considering the growing concern of air pollution, the Kathmandu Valley Air Quality Management Plan, 2020 specifically seeks to promote clean air by addressing key sources of air pollution such as construction, waste burning, industries, vehicles and roads, including indoor air pollution. Despite some notable progress, the authorities now must consider this as a high priority agenda for effective implementation of the plan that protects human health and harnesses environmental sustainability.
Nepal's health policy, 2019 and strategic plan (2023-2030) have articulated the crucial needs for addressing air pollution, climate change and environmental health issues through a multi-sectoral approach. Moreover, the recent 16th Periodic Plan of the National Planning Commission has also identified air pollution, climate change and environment as significant priority issues to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, the existing interventions to reduce air pollution and protect human health are unfortunately very limited. Local climate development policies and strategies must prioritise air pollution, health and environmental issues in their development agenda. Political commitment and multi-disciplinary approach are just as crucial.
The good news is that air pollution is preventable. However, Nepal must improve its capacity to monitor progress in reducing air pollution in an efficient manner. The pressing need to enhance air quality in Kathmandu and other cities is still growing, but progress is still minimal. Unfortunately, robust policies and regulatory actions have been largely weak, and the implementation of sector specific interventions for air quality monitoring and health impact assessments is not happening in a coordinated approach.
Therefore, more investments are needed to enhance the evidence base for informed decision making by conducting participatory research and assessments related to socio-economic analysis of air pollution on human health and environment. Strengthening the institutional capacity of local governments, civil society networks, media and private sector is crucial in tackling air pollution.
On the other side, social movements focusing on air quality advocacy are underway, but not at scale. Empowering the youth for climate action is an innovative strategy for creating public awareness and their effective engagement in locally-led clean air initiatives. Similarly, electric public transport, sustainable waste management, urban health resilience and community-led solutions to combat adverse effects of climate change and air pollution must be promoted.
Air pollution is the greatest environmental threat to public health. More significantly, pollutants of human health include particulate matter, carbon monoxide, ozone, nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide. In addition, increasing trends of outdoor and indoor air pollution have caused respiratory and other diseases that have profound impacts on morbidity and mortality.
Some practices such as clean cooking, electric vehicles, walking and cycling in cities are encouraging, but need to be scaled up across the country. For humanity, worsening air quality is a major concern in the context of sustainable development. Because societal costs due to air pollution and poor environments are large as they are closely associated with the economy, work productivity and health care costs, among many others.
In addition to advancement in science and technology, there is a need to focus on complex relations between people and their environment. The historical relationships of humans with land, climate, plant and animal species must be studied from anthropological perspectives. This is because it helps to explore how human populations are not only shaping the environment, but also experiencing the impacts of environmental health risks, climate change and air pollution at the local level. Cultural ecology and ecosystem approaches must be harnessed to better understand how local people are coping with the challenges of air pollution and adapting to environmental hazards and livelihood issues.
Bhandari is a health policy analyst