Science to Action
10:30 - 12:00
| Event title | Integrated Air Pollution and Climate Change Policies in Asia |
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| Contents | Integrated solutions to air pollution and climate change have the potential to solve two of Asia’s biggest problems. This potential has led researchers and international organizations to call for governments to adopt solutions that simultaneously improve air quality and mitigate climate change. While these efforts have convinced some countries to take limited actions, there remains considerable more scope before policymakers regularly bring together climate change and air pollution into a single set of decisions. This raises the question that will be discussed in this session: what will take to make integrated approaches to air pollution and climate change mainstream in Asia? |
| Keywords | Climate Change, Air pollution, Co-benefit approach, SDGs |
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Final Programme
Taking an Integrated Approach to Climate Change and Air Pollution in Asia
- Dr. Eric Zusman, Research Director, IGES, Japan
Climate Actions and Interactions with SDGs - Ms. Tomoko Ishikawa, Senior Researcher, IGES, Japan
CCAC Activities in Asia - Mr. Nathan Borgford-Parnell, Science Affairs Officer, Climate Change and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC), Paris, France
The Joint Economic Consequences of Climate Change and Air Pollution - Dr. Elisa Lanzi, Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
Sustainable Forestry and Air Pollution in Asia - Dr. Bhaskar Kharky, Programme Coordinator, REDD+ Initiative, International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD)
Session Summary
The session began with a framing presentation from Eric Zusman that set the context by highlighting the growing interest in co-benefits from more integrating climate change and air pollution policies in Asia. The presentation suggested that this growing interest is related to research quantifying the costs and benefits of climate change and air pollution policies; the emergence of work on short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs); and the opportunities to achieve co-benefits in key sectors such as the transport and forestry sector.
The second presentation, from Ms. Tomoko Ishikawa, highlighted important interactions between climate actions and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). She noted that these interactions can be positive (synergies) or negative (trade-offs) and pointed to specific examples in the transport sector where there were synergies.
Nathan Borgford-Parnell followed with a review of activities that the CCAC is supporting to promote the multi-benefits of reducing short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) in Asia. He underlined the CCAC’s work on municipal solid waste; black carbon inventories; the regional assessment (air pollution solutions report); the pathway approach.
Elisa Lanzi then presented on recent research that the OECD is conducting on the combined costs of air pollution and climate change globally. She noted that OECD modelling suggest that these costs are quite high in Asia. For instance, in China and India the combined costs were estimated to be about 7% of GDP by 2060.
Bhaskar Kharky gave the final presentation in which he discussed air pollution from forest fires in Asia. He observed that, though many governments have laws banning the burning of forests, they are difficult to enforce. He argued for a greater emphasis on carefully designed incentives that can be offered to communities to manage forests sustainably.
Key Messages
- There are growing opportunities for integrated air pollution and climate change policies in Asia.
- These opportunities stem from the potential to bring development priorities into NDCs
- They further reflect support from international initiatives promoting action on SLCPs (CCAC) as well as internationally supported research on the combined costs of air pollution and climate change (OECD)
- To take advantage of these opportunities, policymakers will need to think about innovative solutions to development issues such as forest fires
- Policy options that provide incentives rather than penalties may offer a useful way forward for mitigating air pollution/climate change in Asia
Name and organisation of the person(s) who prepared the summary
Eric Zusman and Kaoru Akahoshi, IGES
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