Below please find a summary and overview of the Global Atmospheric Pollution Forum, prepared by the Secretariat. The paper is intended for broad distribution. It provides a synopsis of what the Forum is and why it was established. It also gives an overview of future directions and next steps for the Forum. The Forum remains, at this stage, an enabling body, flexible in structure, that promotes open discussion, the sharing of information and consensus-building on issues related to air pollution.
There will be the opportunity at out Gothenburg meeting to decide upon new programme areas. However, the major focus of the Forum in the next three years will be the implementation of the grant the Forum received from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). As you know, the Sida project is designed to focus particularly on the developing areas of the world that are most exposed to the impacts of air pollution. The grant focuses the Forum’s efforts on three general areas:
- Inter-Governmental Networks:Encourage the establishment or strengthening of regional air pollution networks around the world;
- Technical Cooperation and Capacity-Building:Encourage the harmonization of technical systems and information and assessment procedures between regions and provide a stronger basis for effective capacity building in those regions where it is most needed; and
- Consensus Building and Policy Development:Facilitate consensus development among regional groups and stakeholders on scientific and policy issues to help support the emergence of cooperative action on air pollution at inter-regional, hemispheric and global scales.
At the same time as implementing the Sida grant, the Forum will need to pursue additional sources of funding and work to expand the range of participating organisations to include all relevant organisations with an involvement in and a concern for the issues related to local, regional, hemispheric or global transport of pollution. The Forum should also consider other areas for programmatic development, in addition to the two proposals that are currently being considered: (i) the interaction between conventional atmospheric pollution and climate change; and (ii) the significant health improvements that derive from cutting PM in regions around the world.
The Global Atmospheric Pollution Forum is designed to promote regional and international cooperation to support the development of effective local, regional, hemispheric and global solutions to the air pollution problem. The Forum works to bring together regional and international organizations and other key stakeholders to help facilitate the development of effective policies and programmes to protect public health and the environment from the harmful effects of air pollution.
Air Pollution: A Serious International Health and Environmental Problem
Clean air is critical for life. Every person on the planet breathes, on average, 12,870 liters of air each day. Even small amounts of pollution can make that air unhealthy to breathe. Sensitive groups, including babies, children, the elderly, and people who suffer from heart and respiratory disease are most at risk from polluted air. Air pollution can affect people directly – through breathing unhealthy air – and indirectly – by damaging the environment in which they live. Polluted air can have a series of direct and indirect effects on the environment, including impacts on vegetation and man-made materials, acidification and eutrophication of ecosystems, degradation of visibility, and effects on climate.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that, worldwide, one billion people are exposed to outdoor air pollution that exceeds recommended health-based air quality levels. Air pollution is responsible for over a million premature deaths each year. According to WHO, urban outdoor air pollution is responsible for 800,000 premature deaths each year. In Asia and the western Pacific regions alone, air pollution is estimated to be responsible for a million advanced deaths each year. Worldwide, air pollution causes tens of millions of respiratory and other illnesses, severely affecting quality of life, reducing economic activity and further reinforcing the cycle of poverty in many areas of the world. Those most vulnerable to air pollution include children – who are particularly susceptible because their respiratory systems are not yet fully developed – the elderly, and people with heart or respiratory disease. Although air pollution has a significant impact on all people exposed, the poor are particularly at risk, having fewer opportunities to avoid exposure to damaging pollutants.
Pollutants such as particulate matter (PM) and ozone contribute to rising "background levels" (general level of air quality before adding pollution from local sources) and "atmospheric brown clouds" (haze comprised of many pollutants that can be transported far beyond their source region) in various parts of the globe. They also contribute to what is recognized as the "greying" of the northern hemisphere. They not only increase health damage to crowded urban populations, but damage the ecosystems which help underpin sustainable development. In rural areas, significant crop damage from the pollutant ozone has been observed in Asia and throughout various parts of the world. Acidification of ecosystems from long-range, transboundary air pollution remains a threat in areas with significant emissions from fossil-fuel burning, particularly in East Asia. There are also the intricate linkages between the emissions and effects of conventional air pollution and those of green house gasses and climate change.
Although air pollution affects the disadvantaged and poorest most severely, even nations with advanced pollution control programmes are becoming increasingly concerned about the long-range transport of air pollution, as hemispheric and global pollution threatens to overwhelm many of the advances that have been achieved through local and national control measures. And while environmental improvement is sometimes portrayed as something that comes only at the expense of sustained economic development, experience over the past 35 years has shown that not to be the case. In many nations with advanced air pollution control programmes, pollutants like sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds have been cut significantly, while population, energy use, vehicle miles traveled and gross domestic product have all grown dramatically.
Why a Global Atmospheric Pollution Forum?
In the past, air pollution was perceived primarily as a local phenomenon. And, clearly, controlling emissions at the local scale continues to be critical in order to effectively protect public health in communities around the world. This is particularly true with the rapid growth and expansion of mega-cities, and urban pollution is a shared problem around the globe. However, in recent decades, a growing body of scientific research has demonstrated that air pollution has increasingly become a regional, hemispheric, and even global phenomenon. Air pollution does not respect national or political boundaries. It can travel hundreds and even thousands of kilometers and seriously affect ecosystems and air quality in downwind communities.
Throughout the world, a number of national and international organizations, including the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Bank, the World Health Organization, the UN Development Programme (UNDP), and the World Meteorological Organization, are conducting research on and/or working to reduce air pollution. Also, over the past 25 years, a significant number of regional networks have emerged to tackle the problems in different parts of the globe, supported by a number of major multi-lateral research programmes. These include, but are not limited to, the UN Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) Convention for the Long Range Trans-boundary Air Pollution (LRTAP); the Air Pollution Information Network for Africa (APINA); Acid Deposition Monitoring Network in East Asia (EANET); the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN); the Clean Air Initiatives in Asia (CAI-Asia), Sub-Saharan Africa (CAI-SSA), and Latin America (CAI-LA); the Inter-American Network for Atmospheric and Biospheric Studies (IANABIS) in Latin America; the Malé Declaration on Control and Prevention of Air Pollution and Its Likely Transboundary Effects for South Asia; and Project Atmospheric Brown Clouds (ABC). In addition, there is also activity in the Central Asian Republics.
To date, however, these organizations have operated largely in isolation, focusing on the air pollution concerns in their respective regions. If further progress is to be made, it is clear that not only do these organizations need to succeed at the regional scale, but they also must develop a shared capacity to address issues at the hemispheric and global scale.
The Global Atmospheric Pollution Forum was created to help develop more effective ways for these organizations to share experience and identify opportunities for collaboration. The Forum acts as a facilitator to bring these various regional and international organizations together, along with other stakeholders, to promote effective dialogue among the various parties and assist them in finding solutions to critical air pollution problems. The Forum helps these groups to link up to find an effective framework or frameworks to address regional, hemispheric or global air pollution. It encourages the establishment of new regional networks in areas where they do not currently exist, and supports capacity-building in those regions where lack of resources poses constraints. Ultimately, the Global Atmospheric Pollution Forum encourages harmonization of approaches to facilitate cooperation and helps find consensus on how best to address effectively hemispheric and global air pollution.
The Forum was jointly established in 2004 by the International Union of Air Pollution Prevention and Environmental Protection Associations (IUAPPA) and the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI). SEI is an independent, international research institute specializing in sustainable development and environmental issues. Established in 1989, SEI grew out of an initiative from the Swedish Government to develop an international environment/development research organization. Founded in 1964, IUAPPA is an international body with representatives, associates and observers from over 75 nations dedicated to promoting the exchange of information to improve air pollution control and environmental protection.
The Global Atmospheric Pollution Forum: Looking to the Future
There are now a number of major opportunities for real progress in air pollution abatement at the regional scale. Many of these depend on more effective inter-regional collaboration. This collaboration is critical to finding effective ways forward in securing progress at the hemispheric and global scales. As the Forum looks to the future, it has a number of principles that guide its strategic vision:
- Air pollution presents a complex challenge to decision makers that can only be tackled effectively and efficiently using an integrated approach that takes into account programs and policies at the local, regional, hemispheric and, in some cases, global scale.
- There is a growing consensus on the need for coordinated assessment and pollution abatement strategies at the hemispheric scale, but further progress is likely to be dependent on the consolidation of the scientific base at the regional and national scales. A comprehensive global atmospheric pollution convention would likely be a positive outcome to successfully address hemispheric and global pollution. However, given that such a convention is unlikely to be feasible for some time, there are opportunities to build on the efforts to date by existing institutions, initiatives and networks.
- There is a critical need to develop and harmonize high quality data bases of important information across the various regions. Key areas include emissions inventories, health and environmental impacts and monitoring data, to promote global assessment and capacity-building efforts.
- While breathing unhealthy levels of PM is a major cause of illness and advanced deaths around the globe, the nature and composition of the particles varies among and between regions. Little comparative work has been done so far, with countries in particular regions tending to focus on the PM that is of particular concern to them. Comparison of the different mechanisms for long range transport and the different physical properties of particulates in different regions could improve our understanding of source- receptor relationships and help improve our ability to develop improved strategies to manage PM.
- Future regional and hemispheric efforts can benefit from the experience of initiatives such as the LRTAP Convention in bringing together data and technical expertise from various participating governments to address many of these technical and policy issues. As the longest established and most comprehensive regional air pollution agreement, the LRTAP Convention has a critical role to play in leading and supporting regional programs and helping explore policy scenarios and future pathways forward.
- The Forum hopes not only to continue to work with UNEP, the LRTAP Convention, the various Clean Air Initiatives, and other established regional organizations, but also to widen the scope to include any organizations with interests touching the issues with which it is concerned, including those in the meteorological, health and development fields.
- There are a number of potential synergies between climate change and conventional air pollution. There are intricate linkages between the emissions and effects of conventional pollutants and greenhouse gases. Significant co-benefits, including dramatic reductions in conventional air pollutants, could result from future climate policies, depending upon the choices made. Conversely, controlling conventional pollution can not only significantly improve the health of the millions of people breathing those pollutants, but it can play a role in reducing the effects of climate change, as well.
The Global Atmospheric Pollution Forum: Next Steps
For the next few years, the Forum intends to focus its work in several key areas:
- Implementing a major grant the Forum received in November 2006 from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) on Mitigating the Impact of Air Pollution at Regional Scale on Health, Environment and Economic Development: Further Development of Regional and Global Systems. This work is designed to focus particularly on the developing areas of the world that are most exposed to the impacts of air pollution. Under the grant, the Forum will promote:
- Inter-Governmental Networks:Encourage the establishment or strengthening of regional air pollution networks around the world;
- Technical Cooperation and Capacity-Building:Encourage the harmonization of technical systems and information and assessment procedures between regions and providing a stronger basis for effective capacity building in those regions where it is most needed; and
- Consensus Building and Policy Development:Facilitate consensus development among regional groups and stakeholders on scientific and policy issues to help support the emergence of cooperative action on air pollution at inter-regional, hemispheric and global scales.
- Expanding the range of organizations participating in the Forum to include any and all other organizations with an involvement in and a concern for the issues related to regional, hemispheric or global transport of pollution.
- Targeting other areas for programmatic development, including the interaction between conventional atmospheric pollution and climate change; and the significant health improvements that derive from reducing levels of PM; and
- Continuing to function as an ‘enabling’ organization – promoting open discussion and consensus-building. It will only take on projects and programmes where existing organizations are unable to act, or which depend upon the collaboration of the range of parties brought together within the Forum.
|
