Air Pollution, Clean Energy and Climate Change. Anilla Cherian
or regional partnerships or protocols on climate, energy and air pollution reveal in terms of integrated and responsive action that can transform lives for millions across the globe? The COVID pandemic has exposed the tragic costs borne by those who are consigned to live at the nexus of public health neglect and existing chronic respiratory illnesses worsened by exposure to PM pollution that emanates from fossil fuel combustion and industrial pollution. According to a 2020 study conducted by researchers at Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, ‘Air pollution and COVID‐19 mortality in the United States: Strengths and limitations of an ecological regression analysis’, individuals with long‐term exposure to air pollution are more likely to die of COVID‐19. This first of its kind study examined the link between long‐term exposure to PM2.5 – generated largely from fuel combustion from cars, refineries and power plants – and the risk of death from COVID‐19 in the US. It looked at 3000 counties across the US compared levels of fine particulate air pollution with coronavirus death counts for each area. After adjusting for population size, hospital beds, number of people tested for COVID‐19, weather and socio‐economic and behavioural variables such as obesity and smoking, the researchers found that a small increase in long‐term exposure to PM2.5 leads to a large increase in the COVID‐19 death rate. More specifically, the study found that someone who lives for decades in a US county with high levels of fine particulate pollution is 8% more likely to die from COVID‐19 than someone who lives in a region that has just one unit (1 μg/m3) less of such pollution (Wu et al. 2020). This happens to be a terrifying finding for millions who have lived with chronic exposure to PM2.5 in the most polluted cities in the world. Additionally, what is troubling about COVID‐19 morbidity burdens on poorer, black and brown lives is what Gibbons outlined, which is that detailed studies of ‘past epidemics show the same tragic pattern repeating again and again’, infectious diseases more easily take hold in groups with pre‐existing illnesses, who live and work in crowded conditions and who also lack access to adequate health care.
Another 2020 study by Cambridge University researchers entitled ‘Links Between Air Pollution and COVID‐19 in England’ also found a link between the severity of COVID‐19 infection and long‐term exposure to air pollutants, including nitrogen oxides and ground‐level ozone from car exhaust fumes or burning of fossil fuels. Researchers explored the links between major fossil fuel related air pollutants and SARS‐CoV‐2 mortality in England. The study compared real‐time SARS‐CoV‐2 cases and morbidity from public databases to air pollution data monitored across over 120 sites in different regions in the UK. It found that PM2.5 was a major contributor to COVID‐19 cases in England, and an increase of 1 m3 in the long‐term average of PM2.5 was associated with a 12% increase in COVID‐19 cases in England. The study concluded that ‘a small increase in air pollution leads to a large increase in the COVID‐19 infectivity and mortality rate in England’; and that the study itself could be used as ‘a framework to guide both health and emissions policies in countries affected by this pandemic’ (Travaglio et al. 2021, abstract). Meanwhile, ‘Air Pollution and Risk of Death due to COVID‐19 in Italy’ also confirmed the ‘existence of a link between pollution and the risk of death due to the disease’, and more specifically reiterated ‘the need to act in favour of policies aimed at reducing pollutants in the atmosphere, by means of speeding up the already existing plans and policies, targeting all sources of atmospheric pollution: industries, home heating and traffic’ (Dettori et al. 2021, abstract). The conclusions and recommendations of all three studies are of particular relevance for cities like Delhi, India, which ranks amongst the most air polluted in the world. According to a 20 October 2020 BBC report, PM2.5 levels in Delhi averaged around 180–300 μg/m3 – 12 times higher than the WHO’s safe limits – a depressing reversal as Delhi residents were able to breathe relatively clean air because a stringent lockdown brought industries and traffic to a grinding halt (Pandey 2020). However, a 26 March 2021 Reuters article referenced the fact that Delhi had been ranked as the most polluted city in the world for the third year in a row by researchers at IQAir, an organization that measures air quality levels of PM2.5 across the world’s capital cities (Arora 2021). The harsh reality is that there is a paucity of data on the full extent of PM air pollution on human morbidity in cities in the developing world, let alone those that examine the impacts on long‐term exposure to PM air pollution on COVID‐19 given the current burden of disease and death experienced in countries like India, Brazil and South Africa where COVID variants are decimating lives.
There is now an increased urgency in focusing on the linkage between PM pollution related to the curbing of SLCPs within the context of sustainable cities in countries like India because cities are the loci where two inherently linked crises combine – climate vulnerabilities and toxic levels of energy related air pollution. The magnitude of the public health crisis that air pollution poses is impossible to escape in many cities. Cities are undeniably on the frontline for linked action on clean energy, air pollution reduction and climate resiliency solutions. Winning the interconnected battle necessitates integrated action that is directed via innovative and responsive city‐driven measures that do not need to depend on stalemated intergovernmental climate outcomes. The role of cities and the linkages between air pollution, clean energy and climate responsive action are discussed in greater detail in the chapters that follow. From the outset, it is important to underscore that climate and clean energy action falls clearly within the purview of individual nation‐states, but the urgency of the intertwined climate, clean energy and clean air access crises is such that there is a need to broaden the arena of participants and critically examine the track record of UN outcomes related to air pollution, climate change and clean energy access. Have intergovernmental consensus‐driven declarations of willingness to address climate change focused on specific energy related air pollution targets and goals that are directly responsive to those cities and communities where PM air pollution urgently needs to be abated? Put simply, it is necessary to confront the protracted pace of intergovernmental negotiations and look towards new forms of partnerships and modalities that can more effectively integrate access to clean air and access to clean energy for the poor via the reduction of SLCPs.
The main argument advanced is that addressing the nexus between curbing SLCPs and increasing access to clean energy for the poor does, in fact, require integrated and innovative partnerships that look beyond nation‐state‐driven intergovernmental outcomes and existing policy silos on clean energy, pollution and poverty reduction and climate action. While it is undeniable that national governments – sovereign UN member states – have typically set the rules and frameworks for climate and clean energy, it is also clear that innovative action has not waited for the fractured pace of intergovernmental negotiations. The annual pilgrimages of climate cognoscenti have not resulted in verifiable improvements in the lives of those who lack access to clean energy and are exposed to toxic levels of PM air pollution. Here, it is also useful to ask why the UN’s one and only successfully implemented regional air pollution protocol – the Convention on Long‐range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP) – focuses only on Europe?
Regulatory efforts to curb air pollution have been and remain highly effective within the context of advanced industrialized countries, particularly in Europe. But there is a glaring absence of regional regulatory agreements aimed at reducing emissions of air pollutants within developing countries where the problem of energy related air pollution and lack of access to clean energy happens to be most pervasive. According to UNEP/WMO (2011), BC, which exists as particles in the atmosphere and is a major component of soot, has been demonstrated to be an SLCP. Both BC and O3 are air pollutants harmful to human health, ecosystems and agriculture/food security. BC emissions result from the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels, wood and other biomass, and its negative impacts are felt by poor households that lack access to clean energy while O3 is the third most important GHG contributor after carbon dioxide and methane. The UN’s 1979 CLRTAP, which includes the Gothenburg Protocol (established in 1999), sets legally binding emission reductions commitments for 2020 and beyond for all major air pollutants shown to damage human health including sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), ammonia (NH3), volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5). Administered by the UN’s European Commission on Europe (UNECE), the 7 October 2019 entry into force of the amended