The Nepal Weekly 
September 10, 2024
The United Nations has called on governments, companies, civil society and individuals to tackle air pollution, calling it the biggest environmental health risk of our time and a climate threat.
Observing the International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies on Saturday, 7th September, 2024, the organisation said that air pollution is one of the main avoidable causes of death and disease globally.
“Today, the international community acknowledges that improving air quality can enhance climate change mitigation and that climate change mitigation efforts can improve air quality,” the UN said in a statement.
Invisible particles of pollutants are responsible for about one third of deaths from stroke, chronic respiratory disease and lung cancer, as well as a quarter of deaths from heart attacks, the statement said.
Ground-level ozone, produced from the interaction of many different pollutants in sunlight, is also a cause of asthma and chronic respiratory illnesses.
Some air pollutants, such as black carbon, methane and ground-level ozone, are also short-lived climate pollutants, so their reduction also has benefits for the climate, it added.
UN Member States recognize the need to substantially reduce the number of deaths and illnesses from hazardous chemicals and air, water and soil pollution and contamination by 2030, as well as to reduce the adverse per capita environmental impact of cities, including by paying special attention to air quality and municipal and other waste management by 2030.
Clean air is important for the health and day-to-day lives of people, while air pollution is the single greatest environmental risk to human health and one of the main avoidable causes of death and disease globally. Air pollution disproportionately affects women, children and older persons, and also has a negative impact on ecosystems.
Today, the international community acknowledges that improving air quality can enhance climate change mitigation and that climate change mitigation efforts can improve air quality.
Encouraged by the increasing interest of the international community in clean air, and emphasizing the need to make further efforts to improve air quality, including reducing air pollution, to protect human health, the General Assembly decided to designate 7 September as the International Day of Clean Air for blue skies.
In the outcome document of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, entitled “The future we want,” countries committed to promoting sustainable development policies that support healthy air quality in the context of sustainable cities and human settlements. Also, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which outlines a road map to achieving sustainable development, environmental protection and prosperity for all, recognizes that air pollution abatement is important to the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals.
On this International Day of Clean Air for blue skies, ICIMOD had published the THIMPU OUTCOME. The document reflects a major stepping-up of collective ambition to tackle soaring pollution in one of the most densely populated and toxic airsheds on Earth.
Key stakeholders from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan gathered in Bhutan on 26 and 27 June and stressed the need for a regional working group of experts and scientists from government, academia, and concerned agencies to develop air quality management strategies, to assess and identify research gaps, and needs.
The event produced an outcome text that for the first time accents the need for a regional working group of experts and scientists from government, academia, and concerned agencies to develop air quality management strategies, to assess and identify research gaps, and needs.
Stakeholders also emphasised the urgent need to scale up funding for clean air.
The event, a follow-up to a breakthrough event held in Kathmandu in 2022 that created the Kathmandu Roadmap for Improving Air Quality, brought together high-level policy-makers from both national and state/municipal governments across the Indo-Gangetic Plains and the Himalayan Foothills region (IGP-HF), a region that holds the world’s most polluted airsheds in the most densely populated region.
The consensus text, the Thimphu Outcome, published today, sets out seven common positions, representing a shared understanding and appreciation of issues among regional actors, donors, academics, and government agencies. It also recommends a set of 11 actions to improve air quality in the region which were agreed during the course of the meeting. They agreed to meet next year to structure and frame this regional cooperation to efficiently tackle the issue of air pollution in the region. A technical committee will be established by the end of this year to set out an appropriate structure.
Participants at the event, which is one of series of high-level Science-Policy Dialogues the Kathmandu-headquartered intergovernmental centre ICIMOD convenes in order to drive progress in priority policy areas, were drawn from ministries and/or departments of energy and natural resources, environment, forests and climate change, science, technology and environment, and pollution control boards in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, and Pakistan.
At the Bhutan Air Quality Management Dialogue, which was jointly convened with World Bank, government representatives discussed policies, plans and tools they’ve designed and deployed to tackle air pollution in the IGP-HF region, such as Bangladesh’s national air quality management plan for Dhaka, and Pakistan’s penalty for polluters in Punjab province. (By Purna N. Ranjitkar)
