Mixed progress on air quality still falls far short of what is needed to save seven million lives each year

As global air quality declines, threatening to add to the seven million people air pollution kills each year, increased action in some air quality areas points to political will to tackle this “global public health emergency,” according to reports released Tuesday, 24 May 2016 at the second session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-2) holding in Nairobi, Kenya.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), global urban air pollution levels increased by 8 per cent between 2008 and 2013. More than 80 per cent of people living in urban areas that monitor air pollution are exposed to air quality levels that exceed WHO limits, threatening lives, productivity and economies.

However, Actions on Air Quality, a report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), found improvements in areas such as access to cleaner cooking fuels and stoves, renewables, fuel sulphur content and public transport – pointing to a growing momentum for change.

Executive Director of UNEP, Achim Steiner, said, “A healthy environment is essential to healthy people and our aspirations for a better world under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

“We are indeed making progress on air pollution, but the fact remains that many people are still breathing air outside of WHO standards. The health, social and economic costs are massive and rising. UNEP’s study on ten areas for policy intervention provides a roadmap for countries to follow as they look to reduce air pollution, and we will support them every step of the way.”

For example, 97 countries have increased the percentage of households that have access to cleaner burning fuels to more than 85 per cent – a key move to tackle indoor air pollution, which claims over half the seven million lives.

At least 82 countries out of 194 analysed have incentives that promote investment in renewable energy production, cleaner production, energy efficiency and/or pollution control equipment. Last year, for the first time, renewables accounted for a majority of the new electricity-generating capacity added around the world, at an investment of $286 billion, according to research by UNEP, Bloomberg and the Frankfurt School.

However, action in other areas is less impressive. Policies and standards on clean fuels and vehicles could reduce emissions by 90 per cent, but only 29 per cent of countries worldwide have adopted Euro 4 emissions standards or above. Meanwhile, less than 20 per cent of countries regulate open waste burning, which is a leading cause of air pollution.

A second report released on Tuesday, which looks at attempts to control Beijing’s air pollution over a 15-year period, also finds steady improvements are being made.  A Review of Air Pollution Control in Beijing: 1998-2013 analysed measures implemented since Beijing began launching air pollution control programmes, which saw a steady downward trend in the concentrations of many harmful pollutants.

In 2014, the international community, at the first UNEA, asked UNEP to support global efforts to improve air quality. UNEP has launched several programmes, including an initiative to develop a low-cost sensor that can be used across the developing world to track and address pollution hotspots.

Actions on Air Quality, part of UNEP’s push, focuses on ten basic measures to improve air quality. It shows that the majority of countries world-wide are still to adopt the top-ten air quality policy actions, but highlights many good examples that can be followed.

More than three billion people still use solid fuels and inefficient cook stoves, but the Seychelles was able to improve indoor air quality by transitioning the whole country from solid fuels and inefficient cook stoves to liquefied petroleum gas.

• Only a quarter of countries have advanced fuels and vehicles standards, which can significantly reduce small particulate matter pollution, especially in cities. Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda, decided that from 1 January 2015 only low sulphur fuels would be allowed in their countries. This reduced their emissions by over 90 per cent.
• Electric cars have been on the increase, with strategies being developed in many countries around the world. One-third of all cars bought in Norway are now electric, the result of incentives instituted by the government.
• However, some countries and cities have been able to increase waste recycling, reducing the need to burn waste. In Brazil, for example, millions of hectares of land are under conservation agriculture, which leaves crop residue from previous harvests on the land rather than burning it.
• The majority of countries around the world have now put in place national air quality standards. India, with major air quality challenges in many cities, has established air quality laws and regulation and also an implementation strategy for these laws.
• The Beijing analysis, carried out by UNEP and the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau, found that carbon monoxide and sulphur levels are now below limits set by China’s National Ambient Air Quality Standards, while nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter ten levels are also creeping closer to the standards.

This trend has been driven by a decrease in coal consumption in the power sector and a drop in vehicle emissions resulting from vehicle emission control measures. Coal use fell from a peak of 9 million tonnes in 2005 to 6.44 million tonnes in 2013, while the 2013 levels of carbon monoxide dropped by 76 per cent compared to 1998.

“Even though the air pollution control programmes in Beijing have made substantial progress, the environment quality is far from satisfactory,” said Chen Tian, Director General of the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau. “We will continue to explore approaches that could work effectively for improving the environment in this region.”

Heads of state and government, Economy Ministers, Bank Governors, development partners and delegates will on Monday in Lusaka, the Zambian capital, begin talks on “Energy and Climate Change” as the African Development Bank’s (AfDB’s) 51st Annual Meetings commence. The event will come to a close Friday.

Nigeria’s Vice-President, Yemi Osinbajo, is expected to grace the occasion.

This year’s meeting will be focus on “Energy and climate change” – a timely theme for the world and particularly Africa, given that about 645 million Africans do not have access to electricity, 700 million have no access to clean cooking energy, and 600,000 die each year from indoor pollution from reliance on biomass for cooking.

No fewer 54 Finance or Economy Ministers from member countries of the AfDB, including Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, will review its 2015 operations report, and unveil new strategies and programme to create some 25 million jobs for young people over the next decade.

The Bank’s flagship meeting would also bring together some 3,000 delegates. Other invitees include development partners, representatives of international organisations, academia, civil society and the media.

At the end of 2015, the Bank had made USD 112 billion of loans and grants since 1967, through some 4370 operations. In 2015, it disbursed some USD 8.8 billion in 240 operations, a 25 per cent increase on 2014. Nigeria has been a beneficiary of the bank’s grants.

During the high-level meetings and thematic forums, participants will make in-depth assessments of the performance of Africa countries in the past year and envision how the Bank can help them cope with the difficult economic situation they face due to the global economic downturn and the fall in commodity prices.

AFDB President, Akinwumi Adesina, who will be presiding over his first Annual Meetings since assuming office as the Bank’s 8th President on September 1, 2015, said that participants would examine a host of burning issues in Africa as well as approve its activities and budget for the coming year.

Amongst the Bank’s five new priority actions – designed to scale up its operations for the continent’s transformation – are Light up and power Africa, Feed Africa, Industrialise Africa, Integrate Africa and improve the quality of life for the people of Africa.

“All of them need to be debated and owned, as much by governments, as by business, as by civil society, as by the press, as by the people of Africa. The agenda is huge: We want to see nothing less than the social and economic transformation of Africa. We want to unleash massive potential – for Africa and for the world,” he said.

The 2016 Annual Meetings theme is aligned with two of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): SDG 7 to “ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all” and SDG 13 to “take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts”.

The Bank’s Annual Meetings are its largest annual event, and its biggest window on the world.  They bring together some 5,000 delegates and participants, and feature some 40 official events in addition to the Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors, which constitutes the core purpose of the Meetings.

The Executive Boards of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) on Wednesday May 18, 2016 in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire took a significant step towards the continent’s economic transformation with the approval of the Bank Group’s 2016-2025 Strategy for the New Deal on Energy for Africa.

According to the AfDB, the Strategy sets out the priorities for the it’s interventions in the energy sector from 2016 to 2025. It aims to spur the transformation of Africa’s energy sector, promoting inclusive growth and the transition to green growth by increasing energy production, scaling-up energy access, improving affordability, reliability and energy efficiency as well as the sustainability of energy systems.

The New Deal on Energy for Africa is built on five inter-related and mutually reinforcing principles: raising aspirations to solve Africa’s energy challenges; establishing a Transformative Partnership on Energy for Africa; mobilising domestic and international capital for innovative financing in Africa’s energy sector; supporting African governments in strengthening energy policy, regulation and sector governance; and increasing the African Development Bank’s investments in energy and climate financing.

With over 645 million people in Africa without access to electricity and some 730 million reliant on biomass for cooking, the New Deal proposes to be a game changer for the continent’s energy sector.

To tackle this deficit, the New Deal intends to focus on seven themes that are holding back the development of the energy sector.

These strategic themes are: (i) setting up the right enabling policy environment, (ii) enabling utility companies for success, (iii) dramatically increasing the number of bankable energy projects, (iv) increasing the funding pool to deliver new projects, (v) supporting ‘bottom of the pyramid’ energy access programmes, (vi) accelerating major regional projects and driving integration and (vii) rolling out waves of country-wide energy ‘transformations’.

The AfDB intends to address these themes through a series of flagship programmes such as: Independent Power Producers (IPP) procurement, renewable energy, energy efficiency, power utility transformation, early stage project support facility, bottom of the pyramid energy financing, regional project acceleration, energy efficiency, country wide energy sector turnarounds, and transformative partnerships.

Designed to support the implementation of the new strategic goals of the Bank, the High 5s, the New Deal is critical to achieving these goals because energy drives socioeconomic development. Feeding Africa, Industrialising Africa, Integrating Africa, and Improving the Quality of Life of Africans, will rely on Lighting up and Powering Africa. The Strategy is therefore designed to unlock productivity potentials across agribusiness zones and hubs as well as industrial value chains in all economic sectors in rural and urban areas with a focus on reaching the unserved populations across the continent.

The New Deal will contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Africa. It will contribute directly to achieving in particular, SDG7 – on ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, modern energy for all; SDG 1 – on ending poverty in all forms; SDG 13 – on combating climate change and its impact; SDG 3 – on improving health and well-being; SDG 5 – on achieving gender equality and empower all women and girls; and SDG 10 – on reducing inequality within and among countries. In addition, by improving access to clean energy, the New Deal will have co-benefits for social, economic and environment sustainability in Africa. The New Deal will also assist African countries in achieving the COP21 Agreement on climate change, especially the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) of African countries.

The AfDB has developed a significant energy sector portfolio in recent years with over 100 active projects. The volume of the Bank’s energy sector approvals from 2006-2015 amounts to about USD 15 billion (UA 10 billion). At the end of 2015, the energy sector portfolio stood at over USD 12 billion (UA 8 billion).

The New Deal is coupled with internal reforms, following the previous approval by the Board of the new Business Delivery Model, which envisages the creation of a Vice Presidency for Power, Energy, Climate, and Green Growth, making the AfDB the only Multilateral Development Bank to do so.

“As we strive to green the economy, we must begin to reduce environmental degradation, pollution, and the effects of climate change.”

Those were the promising words of Amina J. Mohammed, the Minister of Environment, as she rang the Trade Closing Bell at the Nigerian Stock Exchange on Tuesday in Lagos.

The minister, who was received by the Chief Executive Officer of the Exchange, Oscar Onyema, shared the “New Narrative” at Federal Ministry of Environment that focuses on Empowering People, taking Climate Action and Protecting the Environment.

According to her, environment and private sector partnership is key towards a sustainable transition to a green economy, adding that this would ensure that industries adhere to standard and regulations on environmental protection.

Meeting with some of the CEOs of listed companies, Mohammed stated that the issue of sustainable development in Nigeria goes beyond just Cooperate Social Responsibility (CSR). She added that companies need to be more responsible by adopting sustainable business models.

“The era of sustainable development is the paradigm shift needed to ensure that we protect the planet for future generations by ensuring the interaction of the environment, social and economic needs. Putting people at the centre is good for business,” the minister noted.

According to her, the response at the Federal Ministry of Environment includes creating opportunities that grow a prosperous nation through an empowered people, capable of taking action and contributing to the protecting of the planet.

Her words: “This is reinforcing the administration’s approach in the change agenda for the environment sector through peace, jobs and a corruption-free society. The private sector must contribute to this new change by adopting a business model that is transparent, accountable and encourages women in decision-making roles.”

For the parts of the Paris Climate Change Agreement which relate to adaptation to climate change to be fully implemented, more clarity is needed on how to recognise and review measures to build resilience, including with the help of comparable methodologies.

This was the key conclusion of scientists and practitioners meeting at the Adaptation Forum in Rotterdam, the Netherlands last week. The Adaptation Committee – the overall advisory body on adaptation to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) – organised the forum on the margins of the Adaptation Futures Conference, the 4^th International Climate Change Adaptation Conference.

Don Lemmen, Co-Chair of the Adaptation Committee, outlined the objectives of the forum, including informing participants of the adaptation-related aspects of the Paris Agreement and receiving inputs to be used by the Adaptation Committee and the Least Developed Countries Expert Group in making key elements of the Paris Agreement which relate to adaptation operational.

Roger Pulwarty of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the USA addressed the question of reviewing the adequacy and effectiveness of adaptation actions and support thereof.

According to him, most assessments of adaptation are restricted to impacts and planning; only few assess the processes and metrics of implementation and the evaluation of actions. During the discussion moderated by Vivienne Parry of the United Kingdom, participants referred to existing frameworks, such as national adaptation plans, to assess the adequacy and effectiveness of adaptation.

Many participants lamented the lack of common adaptation metrics in the adaptation components of national climate action plans (Intended Nationally Determined Contributions, or “INDCs”). For example, Burkina Faso seeks to distribute 1,000 drip irrigation kits per year as part of its adaptation efforts in the water sector, whereas Comoros aims to increase the percentage of farmers with adaptive water management systems and Bolivia wants to significantly increase its water storage capacity.

Katherine Vincent of Kulima of South Africa highlighted ways to recognise adaptation efforts of developing countries. One such method of recognition could include Climate Public Expenditures and Institutional Reviews. For example, expenditures for measures to adapt to climate change are marked and tagged in Nepal’s budget and thus easily recognisable. Other practitioners highlighted sharing of good practices and identifying champions. The Netherlands, for example, was recognised as a champion in flood control.

Minpeng Chen, Co-Chair of the Adaptation Committee, stressed that more methodological work is urgently needed and invited all participants to provide further input in order to operationalise adaptation provisions of the Paris Agreement.