What if the Air Pollution Emergency will end up to address Climate Change?

Provocative thought but maybe a scenario not so far from reality. The magnitude of the air quality problem is unprecedented: the WHO has recently warned that that over 90% of world population lives in places where air quality exceeds WHO guideline limits, being the cause for over 7 million of premature deaths every year. The consequences of #climate change are estimated to be even more severe, but air pollution is by definition a more local issue and therefore not requiring complex and difficult global agreement to be tackled. 

#Pollution problem is now ranking in highest positions of several leaders agenda and getting increasing attention in popular media: just last week both FT and The Economist hosted special issues on this problem.

In some of most dynamic and fast-rising emerging economies, almost the entirety of population is subject to air conditions well above the safety standards adding political and social pressures to local governments. During his speech at the 19th Congress of the Communist Party, the Chinese President Xi Jiping mentioned 89 times the word environment and a central pillar of country’s 5 year plan is to Make China Skies Blue Again. Announcements have already translated in concrete actions: #China #gas consumption is skyrocketing, growing at double-digits’ annual pace underpinned by policies aimed to favour gas versus #coal consumption. But China is also the undisputed leader in #electricvehicles covering alone more than half of worldwide sales and developing very rapidly the deployment of a public transport equipped with #electric buses.

While air pollution has been often associated to China, it is actually #India the country suffering the most catastrophic air quality #emergency. The level of pollutants in the air is as bad as being one of key elements for having reduced country’s average life expectancy last year. India has the not-envied record to be home of the 10 most polluted cities of the world and last year in Delhi, schools have been forced to shut down for several days due to pollution record levels. 

While still much remains to be done, India’s government has started to look seriously at this issue, boosting more use of #renewables in #power generation, evaluating stringent emission standards for vehicles and promoting gas use as alternative to #biomass cooking fuels. But rapid economic development, rising living standards and full #electrification underpin a coal fleet still expanding, although the pace of growth is slowing down.

Outside the two big Asian giants, other countries in the region are experiencing dramatic levels of air pollutants being Bangladesh and Pakistan the two most important examples. But the issue in not confined only to emerging countries but more and more affecting more advanced countries. In Europe - Oslo, Madrid, London, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Paris are only few European cities which have decided - or is under discussion - the introduction of the ban of #diesel #cars or other measures aimed to strongly limit private car circulation in an attempt to improve local air quality. But a wide range of measures are under discussion in several other capitals all around the world. Also Europe is a front-runner in promoting deployment of renewables for power generation, with utilisation of coal expected continuing to decline, as well as pushing electric vehicles diffusion with generous incentives.

Improving air #quality is possible, without undermining economic development and living standards. More than two years ago, the IEA developed a first of a kind Special Report on energy and air pollution highlighting the interlinks between energy, air quality and health. With energy use being one of key source of pollutants, the report provided a series of policy choices which – if implemented – would have led to a sharp improvement in health. Under such scenario, premature deaths from outdoor air pollution would plunge by 1.7 million in 2040 compared with baseline scenario while those from household pollution would fall by 1.6 million annually.

Air quality and climate change are two sides of the same coin being both strongly dependent on the way we produce and consume energy. But policy-makers have an indisputable stronger incentive to implement measures aimed to reduce air pollution which typically affects local population and domestic voters.

Proven policies exist. And technologies are already widely available. Maybe this new additional emergency might end up to trigger the much-awaited solutions to address also climate change