Global Clean Air

Vital global initiative will accelerate clean air solutions in cities

By Sarah Vogel / Published: March 19, 2021

Everybody deserves the right to breathe clean air. Yet air pollution is choking cities and communities around the world – a staggering 9 in 10 people breathe unhealthy air.

City leaders need to urgently identify and accelerate solutions across the world. That’s why the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is launching a bold initiative – called Clean Air Catalyst – to help cities around the world reduce air pollution by advancing solutions that protect health, promote equitable prosperity and tackle the climate crisis. Through a global consortium of organizations led by the World Resources Institute (WRI) and Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), Clean Air Catalyst will begin in two pilot cities: Indore, India, and Jakarta, Indonesia. In Jakarta, WRI Indonesia is the implementing organization.

To mark the initiative’s official launch, hundreds of people from around the world attended a virtual conversation on clean air, health and climate solutions with U.S. Senator Bob Menendez and USAID’s Karl Fickenscher, as well as representatives from partners and the pilot cities. Here’s what you need to know.

Also posted in Climate, Concerned Citizen, Energy, Environmental Justice, Government Official/Policymaker, Homepage, Partners / Comments are closed

Deprived and BAME schoolchildren in London experience greater air pollution burden

By EDF Web Team / Published: February 22, 2021

By: Greg Slater, data analyst

Air pollution varies dramatically across London, which means not all schoolchildren have the same start in life.

Using a powerful new dataset, we found that pollution is significantly higher at primary schools with more students from deprived areas, as well as at schools with a higher proportion of students of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) background. With vehicles a major contributor, pollution is also unsurprisingly elevated closest to the cities’ main roads.

Damaging health

Nitrogen oxides (NO_x) pollution is a toxic chemical cocktail that includes nitrogen dioxide (NO₂). Road transport – especially diesel vehicles – is a major source of NO_x, which can inflame airways and aggravate existing heart and lung conditions.

In fact, recent research shows living near busy roads in London, where NO_x pollution is high, may stunt lung growth in children by 12.5%.

Stark inequity

New modelled data produced by Cambridge Environmental Research Consultants as part of the the Breathe London pilot project has allowed us to look at the estimated level of NO_x pollution at every London state primary school in 2019.

Our analysis reveals that air pollution does not affect all schoolchildren equally, with children from deprived neighbourhoods exposed to more pollution. When examining the deprivation level (a measure that incorporates a broad range of living conditions, including income, health and access to resources), we found that average NO_x levels at schools with pupils attending from the most deprived areas were 27% higher than those at schools with pupils attending from the least deprived areas.

We also found that white students are exposed to less pollution at school. Using the modelled pollution data and census data to estimate the proportion of students of BAME background at each school, the results show that schools with the highest percentage of non-white pupils have average NO_x levels that are 28% higher than schools with the lowest proportion of BAME students.

Pollution from road transport

By looking at the rise and fall of schools’ NO_x levels over the course of a day, we see that pollution peaks around 7-9 am. The chart below also depicts how much is coming from distinct sources, revealing that about 50% of the pollution comes from vehicles during these morning hours. This is when children are typically traveling to school and more likely to be exposed to pollution.

We also found that pollution is on average 25% higher at schools within 100 metres of London’s ‘Red Routes’ – with the bulk of local pollution again coming from road transport. Red Routes are the city’s major roads, managed by Transport for London on behalf of the Mayor of London.

The number of children studying near these roads varies significantly across London. For example, 20% of primary schools in Wandsworth are near a Red Route compared to 8% for an average London borough.

It’s clear that not all children currently have an equal chance at a healthy future – with deprived and BAME children breathing in significantly more pollution at their primary school. Measures that cut pollution from vehicles and reduce exposure, especially along the Red Routes, are essential to address this inequity and protect young lungs.

Cambridge Environmental Research Consultants produced the NOx pollution dataset as part of the Breathe London pilot project.

EDF Europe provided a data analysis on air pollution at London primary schools to the London Assembly for its February 2021 report.

Also posted in Homepage / Comments are closed

The Breathe London Blueprint is here to guide your city’s monitoring project and inspire clean air action.

By Elizabeth Fonseca / Published: February 9, 2021

A key question for any city considering using lower-cost sensors or mobile monitoring to measure air pollution is, “Can they provide reliable data and insights?”

The short answer is yes and more, as we describe in our Breathe London Blueprint. The Blueprint is a guide that provides essential lessons for cities interested in using hyperlocal monitoring to turn data into clean air action.

The pilot project

For two years we managed the Breathe London pilot project, an ambitious, collaborative effort to map and measure air pollution across the city.

With more than 100 lower-cost sensor pods and specially-equipped Google Street View cars, the pilot complemented and expanded upon London’s existing monitoring networks. The city’s existing regulatory network also provided an excellent opportunity to study the performance of lower-cost sensors and mobile monitoring to determine their reliability and accuracy.

Replicating best practices

Not all cities will have the resources that were available to us in London. That’s why we created the Blueprint guide to share key lessons and help cities replicate best practices, regardless of their starting place or resource level.

We provide guidance to help you get started, including understanding your city’s unique air quality landscape and building your team.

Once you’ve got a better idea of the existing landscape – and you see where data gaps exist – you can set clear goals and design a plan to achieve them.

Achieving your goals

The Breathe London pilot used hyperlocal monitoring to:

Identify pollution hotspots,
Measure the impact of an air quality intervention and
Raise public awareness.

The Blueprint guide explains the approach we took on these three goals and what we found in the process.

Based on what we learned in Breathe London, we include tips for how you can get started on each goal – even if you don’t have as many monitors as we did.

Digging deeper

The Blueprint guide is complemented by the comprehensive technical report, which was written by the entire project consortium and provides a behind-the-scenes look at the practical details and methodology we used.

For anyone interested in digging deeper on the project specifics or the scientific learnings, the technical report is full of detailed scientific information. Topics include quality assurance and control, as well as how the consortium used a novel network-based calibration method.

Looking ahead

We hope the guide provides valuable lessons learned from Breathe London and serves as a blueprint for how to do something similar in your city, regardless of your starting point. Our London insights are already helping our Global Clean Air efforts, such as the work we’re undertaking with Mexico City to scope and shape a hyperlocal monitoring network.

By keeping a spotlight on the threat of air pollution to our health and well-being, data from hyperlocal monitoring is increasingly becoming a viable option to inform better, higher-impact clean air solutions.

To receive news and updates like this, please sign up for our Global Clean Air newsletter.

Image by ZDRAVKO BATALIC.

Also posted in London / Comments are closed

Global Clean Air Blog: Houston students thriving during lockdown by learning about air quality

By Kevin Tuerff / Published: January 26, 2021

By Shannon Thomas, Project Manager, EDF Environmental Youth Council Program

2019 photo: Houston Environmental Youth Council

Ask parents and educators about the spring 2020 semester, and they’ll likely tell you similar versions of the same story: students were just hitting their strides with various projects and the end of the academic year was in sight. Then it all came to a screeching halt.

The same was true for the students I work with in EDF’s Environmental Youth Council, an educational program for high-school-age youth from communities in Houston that are most affected by high levels of air pollution.

Pasadena Memorial High School teens had learned about the harmful impacts of engine idling as a part of the program. So when a few of our students noticed their classmates leaving their cars running while watching videos on their phones or doing their makeup in the mornings, they were rightfully concerned. They prepared a proposal, went to their principal, and convinced him to adopt a no idling policy in the student parking lot. The students purchased signage and began developing a marketing campaign to support the new policy just as everything shut down.

The signs went into a closet, and I wondered what would become of our program and its 30 students. One of the hallmarks of this program, which started in 2019, has been the creative ways we engage our students. What would happen without the trips to Washington, DC, the hands-on experiments, bus rides to the top of a 200-foot pile of garbage and engaging guest speakers?

Light has a funny way of pushing through darkness, and teenagers can still surprise me.

Growing while meeting virtually

Despite going fully virtual this academic year, we didn’t just keep our Council going; we nearly doubled its size, to 55 students. Teens from Pasadena Memorial, Pasadena High School, and Raul Yzaguirre School for Success in the East End meet online to learn not only about environmental health and science, but also civic leadership, thanks to grant funding from the Gulf Research Program of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.

By going fully virtual, we’ve actually been able to engage more students. And while the teaching strategies have changed, we’re still able to educate them about the science of air quality and the physical impacts of pollution on the body.

We’re also hopefully inspiring them to become environmental leaders in their communities, which, due to their proximity to oil and gas refineries, chemical facilities and other industrial sites, are disproportionately impacted by pollution.

Developing new environmental leaders

One graduate of the program who recently moved away told me she didn’t realize that the odor she smelled every day wasn’t normal. By teaching these students about what’s going on around them and the levers of power that can change it, I hope they’ll develop into leaders who will fight for cleaner air in their communities.

Houston ship channel

So while we haven’t been able to do our boat tour down the Houston Ship Channel this year and won’t be able to visit local Congressional representatives at the U.S. Capitol, I’m excited that such an engaged group of students will emerge from this pandemic with a deeper understanding of the air they breathe and the change they can make.

Read other Global Clean Air blogs here.

Also posted in Academic, Houston / Comments are closed

Global Clean Air Blog: How we make pollution more visible

By sakennard / Published: October 27, 2020

By Sarah Vogel, Ph.D., VP Health

When we’re outside, either walking or driving, we’re instinctively looking out for traffic. “Look both ways when you cross the street,” is advice drummed into most children.

But even so, we all have blind spots, and we’re not aware of the present danger polluting cars and trucks bring into our daily lives.

Our new video shows that although air pollution from vehicle exhaust is invisible, its damage to our health is visible and deadly.

EDF’s Global Clean Air Initiative has spent years researching air pollution in cities around the world. Our pioneering work with Google Earth Outreach, academic, community and government partners in Oakland, Houston and London shows that levels of air pollution vary much more widely than was previously known. In Oakland, we now know that levels of air pollution can vary by up to eight times within one city block. We’ve been working to visualize local pollution and its impacts in order to support targeted policies for cleaner air especially in those communities hardest hit by pollution. But we also recognized the need to make the experience of pollution more visible and more personal to each one of us as we walk down a city street.

Animated Reality Video based on EDF data

We developed a new animated reality video showing the path that pollution takes from tailpipe into the body. Our video was shot in a location in Houston, Texas, in a residential community that lies adjacent to a major freeway where EDF measured high levels of particulates and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) in our 2017-2018 hyperlocal air quality monitoring study, and where the residents experience elevated rates of adult asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart disease, and stroke compared to other neighborhoods in the city.

The video begins with a drone video shot gliding over a busy highway, where the pollution coming from cars and trucks is shown as a half-pipe expanding in 3D. The camera then focuses on a mother and her daughter (both actors) walking down a street–we follow them as they pass trucks and are engulfed in animated pollution particles from exhaust emissions.

Millions of pollution particles in each breath

Pollution is animated as yellow waves of pollution simulating swirling gases, and small, black and yellow animated dots to represent microscopic particles of pollution. According to Adam Nieman of Real World Visuals who worked on this project, a single breath at East Loop South in Houston may contain 18 million particles.1

“The number of particles per breath varies by location and the proximity to different sources of air pollution,” Ramon Alvarez, EDF’s associate chief scientist notes. Regardless of the precise location in an urban area, most people are unaware they can be breathing in millions of pollution particles with each breath.”

Health risks of pollution from transportation

In the video, the animated pollutants travel from tailpipe to trachea, and deep into the young girl’s lungs. EDF epidemiologist Maria Harris shared, “Even short-term exposure to diesel exhaust can cause health impacts, including headaches, dizziness, and eye, nose and throat irritation. Regular exposure to diesel exhaust over time can cause lung cancer, as well as heart disease and other respiratory diseases. Children, whose lungs are still developing, are especially at risk for the respiratory impacts of diesel exposure. Seniors or others with chronic health issues are also at higher risk for respiratory and cardiovascular effects.”

To reduce diesel exposure, Harris suggests trying to limit time walking, biking, or driving on roads with heavy diesel truck or bus traffic, and avoiding areas where diesel trucks or buses idle.

But if we are to build healthy and resilient communities, we need to dramatically cut the emissions from the burning of oil and gas used in transportation, especially cars and trucks.

Benefits for health and climate

In addition to producing harmful air pollution, cars and light trucks account for about 45 percent of all U.S. oil consumption and more than 20 percent of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

Globally, climate emissions from large vehicles are on pace to double in the next 30 years. To reverse this trend and transform large vehicles into a critical part of a 100% clean economy, the global fleet must complete a near-total transition to zero-emission trucks and buses.

Electric trucks can help protect driver’s health

Every day, trucks and buses carry the goods, packages and people that keep our economy running. Usually powered by diesel engines, they are among the dirtiest vehicles on the road.

In the video, the actor portraying a delivery driver is exposed to the invisible pollution. Truck drivers often have high occupational exposure to diesel exhaust, which may put them at elevated risk of lung cancer and cardiovascular and respiratory disease. Cabin air filtration systems can help reduce diesel exposure for truck drivers. But ultimately, the best approach for protecting drivers and the communities they drive through is to shift to electric trucks and buses.

With electric vehicles, a zero-emission future that benefits the environment, people and economy is possible.

Take Action for Healthier Solutions

Now that you’ve seen how dangerous air pollution is to our health, we invite you to join the virtual community assembled at GlobalCleanAir.org and help us bring cleaner air to communities around the world. Also, we hope you join the global conversation about public health and clean air on Twitter @EDFCleanAir.

On the site you’ll learn about the health impacts of different air pollutants, case studies on innovative air quality monitoring across the world, tools to implement community-wide strategies where you live, and tips we can all take to clean the air we breathe. We encourage you to visit, and sign up for our monthly newsletter and advocacy action alerts.

Video Script and Sources

Below are facts cited in the video script, listed with links to their sources.
What if invisible pollution became visible?

1. Around the world, nine out of 10 people breathe unhealthy air. (Source: World Health Organization)
2. FACTOID: Exhaust from [diesel and gasoline] cars and trucks contains pollutants like nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter that can cause heart and lung disease. (Source: US EPA)
3. FACTOID: With every breath, a person on this street will inhale harmful gases and millions of tiny particles. (Source: EDF)
4. FACTOID: Particulates can penetrate deep into the lungs and even enter the bloodstream. Nitrogen dioxide can inflame airways and cause asthma attacks. (Source: American Lung Association)
5. FACTOID: About 4 million children worldwide develop asthma each year from breathing nitrogen dioxide. (Source: George Washington University)
6. Air pollution can cross the placenta and may harm babies’ brain development. (Source: Project TENDR)

Air pollution is invisible, but it damages our health and is sometimes deadly.

Healthier solutions are here.

1.The pollution particle count in the EDF Houston data (near the East Loop South highway) was 36,000 particles per cubic centimeter. The average ‘tidal volume’ of an adult breath is 0.5 litres, which means that a single breath at East Loop South would contain about 18 million pollution particles.

Also posted in Climate, Energy, Monitoring / Comments are closed

How we used machine learning to get better estimate of London’s NO2 pollution reduction

By Greg Slater and Dan Peters / Published: October 5, 2020

A new analysis for UK Clean Air Day from Environmental Defense Fund Europe (EDF Europe) finds nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution was 40% lower than expected across London during the initial COVID-19 lockdown.

But how do we know about pollution that didn’t happen? We used a machine learning model to predict what the concentration of NO2 would have been if lockdown restrictions had not come into effect. Here’s how it works.

Removing the weather impact

Meteorology and seasonal patterns have a big impact on air quality, which needs to be taken into account when measuring changes in pollution. For example, a windy day could improve air quality by dispersing pollutants that might have otherwise accumulated locally. Meteorological and seasonal variations like this make it difficult to directly compare one period to another – are changes in pollution due to a policy intervention or behaviour change, or is it just the weather?

We wanted to isolate the impact of lockdown measures on London’s NO2 pollution, which is produced from fossil fuels and is associated with heart and lung-related health impacts.

Using open-source tools developed by researchers at the University of York (Grange, 2020), and data from over 100 regulatory air quality monitors, we built a machine learning model to help us do this. London’s long-running monitoring network provides years’ worth of historic pollution data, which is used to train and test the model, alongside a series of meteorological and temporal variables.

We can then use this model – with time and weather information from lockdown dates – to predict the pollution levels we would have expected to see had lockdown measures not occurred. These predictions mirror seasonal and meteorological changes in observed pollution levels much more closely than an historical average, for example, which may vary due to different weather during that period.

As a result, with this method the difference between expected and observed levels can be more directly attributed to the impact of lockdown restrictions rather than random weather variations.

40% less pollution

The figure above shows a comparison between average expected and observed NO2 concentrations. The gap between what we expected to see and what we actually saw increases dramatically after 16th March, when social distancing was strongly advised. The figure shows the close alignment of trends between expected and observed levels, illustrating how both are similarly influenced by meteorological effects during the period.

Overall, we found a 40% difference from mid-March to mid-June 2020 – i.e. NO2 pollution levels were 40% less than what the model predicted during lockdown. This is the average change across London’s different monitoring site types, including those close to roads (kerbside and roadside) and farther away from busy streets (urban background and suburban).

Changes in meteorology over time typically complicate air quality intervention analysis, but a machine learning method like this allows us to better isolate changes associated with interventions, like lockdown measures. This method has been used successfully in other recent air quality research – for example, Grange and Carslaw (2019) – and we will continue to use cutting-edge methods like this to better understand how London’s pollution levels are changing.

This analysis complements our previous lockdown assessment using data from the Breathe London monitoring network. We used data from the regulatory monitors here rather than Breathe London because training the model requires a longer historical record.

References:

Grange, S. K. (2020). rmweather: Tools to Conduct Meteorological Normalisation on Air Quality Data. Version 0.1.51. URL: https://cran.r-project.org/package=rmweather
Grange, S. K. and Carslaw, D. C. (2019). Using meteorological normalisation to detect interventions in air quality time series. Science of The Total Environment 653, pp. 578–588.

This was originally posted to EDF Europe.

Also posted in Academic, London, Science, UK / Authors: gslater, dpeters / Comments are closed

Pandemic exposes need for cities to improve air pollution data collection to protect public health

By Harold Rickenbacker / Published: July 15, 2020

Harold Rickenbacker, Ph.D., Manager, EDF+Business.

This is the fourth in a series of Global Clean Air blogs on COVID-19 and air pollution. EDF scientists and program experts share data about pollution levels during quarantine from a local and global perspective, and provide recommendations for governments and companies to Rebuild Better.

Los Angeles, California.

We’ve long known that air pollution is linked to health problems like heart disease and asthma, and that these risks are highest for the elderly and people with existing heart and lung diseases. Now, new evidence shows the same people who have lived with polluted air for decades are also at increased risk for severe illness from Coronavirus.

These findings are generating unprecedented urgency to clean the air we breathe and underscoring the importance for cities across the globe to make air pollution monitoring a priority in a post-pandemic world.

But as local leaders grapple with how to tackle air pollution and protect vulnerable communities, they’re faced with a big challenge: they lack the localized data needed to properly protect public health and reduce harmful emissions.

New, lower-cost sensor technology is allowing scientists, advocates and government officials to map air pollution at the hyperlocal level, which can reveal pollution patterns within neighborhoods and even individual city blocks.

Policymakers tasked with rebuilding healthier and more resilient communities in a post-pandemic world can use localized data to work more effectively with residents and stakeholders to implement powerful interventions that reduce air pollution in overburdened communities.

What better data can tell us

Everyone deserves to breathe clean air, but where you live determines how likely pollution is to worsen or shorten your life. And while most conventional monitoring systems can provide a general sense of a city’s air quality, they can’t account for air pollution at the neighborhood level, where people live, work, and play.

There are two ways local leaders can leverage hyperlocal air quality data to inform solutions for improving community health.

Finding the pollution culprit: Source apportionment

It’s common to see local variations in air pollution concentrations – a spike at one end of the block, but not the other. It’s more difficult, though, to determine the reasons behind that spike.

Through a process called source apportionment, cities can pinpoint the origin of air pollution emissions – using the most sophisticated methods, this information can be obtained at the level of down to a single idling truck, a specific power plant, or even a smoke stack from that plant. This level of specificity can show how individual sources are responsible for fluctuations in air pollution levels, as well as how much impact one sector of sources is having compared to others. For example, is a city’s biggest air pollution problem its diesel trucks or its power generation facilities?

Knowing exactly where pollution is coming from empowers city officials to see how much of their air pollution originates within their city boundaries, versus how much might be coming from a source in the neighboring region. Local governments, such as Salt Lake City are using these insights to identify where they have the authority to implement tailored interventions, or where they can collaborate with neighboring municipalities to clean the air for all.

Understanding the true impact air pollution has on health

The science is clear that air pollution is harmful to human health. Yet, we know little about where and how people are most affected.

Are the higher asthma rates in one neighborhood the result of pollution coming from local truck traffic, and not an upwind power plant? Is your community more or less affected than others in your city and why? Unfortunately, too often we’re seeing it’s low-income and minority populations that are hit the hardest, and tools like Health Impact Assessments (HIAs) are being used to prioritize environmental justice and policy actions.

HIAs were introduced as an independent tool to help practitioners, and decision makers incorporate and weigh public health considerations in decision making. Cities, including New York, London and Barcelona are using HIAs to evaluate what the potential health gains are from adopting various policies. In the Bay Area and in Houston, satellite and sensor data are being used to make the invisible visible.

As local leaders devise solutions for improving air quality, it’s critical that human health is made a top consideration. Making health a factor in the cost benefit analysis will enable cities to show that not only did their policies drive down pollution levels, they too improved public health.

Cleaner skies for a healthier tomorrow

Even in cities that might meet health-based standards, air pollution can burden or even shorten residents’ lives. And it’s disproportionately impacting some communities more than others.

The global pandemic reinforces the need for policies guided by sound science that safeguard our health and climate. At the same time, it’s bringing longtime inequities into sharper focus.

As we look into the future, it’s critical that local leaders harness hyperlocal data to forge evidence-based policies that drastically reduce pollution while building more resilient, inclusive communities.

—

How cities around the world are responding during the pandemic

Air pollution at some commuter hotspots in London, UK halved in the first four weeks of lockdown, according to new research by our European colleagues. A separate survey showed one in six with lung conditions noticed their conditions were improved during the lockdown. London also temporarily expanded its Congestion Charge to new hours during the evenings and weekends to help reduce traffic pollution. Ultra-low emission vehicles and electric vehicles may drive in Central London without paying the hefty fees.

In Houston, One Breath Partnership is educating residents about environmental racism and the disparities of health impacts of pollution and COVID-19 on Black and Brown communities.

In Beijing, China, local authorities used the biggest political gathering of the year, China’s “Two Sessions,” to set an example and promote cleaner transportation options to the public. During the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in May, NPC and CPPCC representatives from Beijing all used electric vehicles for conference-related transportation. Beijing also has been promoting green transportation through programs such as waiving bike-sharing fees during rush hour and providing additional discounts to frequent bike-sharing users. EDF’s bike-sharing air quality monitoring pilot can help provide supporting data and in turn evaluate the social impact of the city’s approaches to reducing air pollution.

Paris, France is subsidizing purchases of electric bicycles, up to half the cost, or 500 Euros.

Bogotá, Colombia has responded to the pandemic by accelerating existing efforts to encourage low-carbon and cleaner forms of urban transport, such as adding 80 km of ciclovia (bicycle lanes) to the existing 560 km network and making greater provision for pedestrians.

—

EDF surveyed sustainability leaders across the globe to better understand cities’ unique challenges and opportunities for air pollution management. According to preliminary results, 82% of respondents recognize Health Impact Assessment (HIA) and source apportionment as necessary tools to take action on air pollution. To this point, EDF is interested in learning the current status of air quality in your region, and where you are in your air pollution management journey, including any obstacles and/or successes you’ve faced along the way. Please take 10 minutes to complete this Air Pollution Management Needs Assessment.

This was originally posted to the EDF Health blog.

Also posted in Academic, Community Organizer, Concerned Citizen, Government Official/Policymaker, Public Health/Environmental Official / Authors: hrickenbacker_edfbiz / Comments are closed

Why companies need to invest in clean delivery amid pandemic online shopping

By Anne Marie Borrego / Published: July 10, 2020

This is the third in a series of Global Clean Air blogs on COVID-19 and air pollution. EDF scientists and program experts will share data about pollution levels during quarantine from a local and global perspective, and provide recommendations for governments and companies to Rebuild Better.

COVID-19 means a lot more online shopping, which means a lot more delivery trucks that could contribute to a lot more air pollution in our neighborhoods.

As coronavirus shut down the economy, some regions saw a drop in air pollution. But as economic activity picks up, so does pollution — and if the habit of doing more shopping online persists, we could end up with worse air quality from fleets of diesel-powered delivery trucks.

At-home delivery is contributing to growing demand for freight movement, which is driving increased consumption of fossil fuels, especially diesel, and worsening air pollution. In fact, Amazon’s carbon emissions climbed 15% in the last year alone — even before coronavirus — due to increased sales.

During this pandemic, at-home shoppers are deluged with purchases arriving by cardboard box, each delivered by polluting trucks. Our new video encourages consumers to let companies know they’d like them to make the last mile of delivery to come from a zero-emissions vehicle, cleaner shipping options and local delivery lockers. “Getting a finished product from the factory to your door, has costs beyond the price tag. More trucks are making more trips, hurting the planet, and our health.”

Along with Amazon, other leading last-mile delivery companies include FedEx, UPS, XPO, USPS and Walmart. While startups have dominated the zero-emissions last-mile space, household names are starting to pilot new solutions, including an order for 10,000 electric delivery vehicles by UPS, and an all-electric box truck by Daimler.

The economy is slowly bouncing back in some areas. Streets are crowded with pedestrians, bikers, cars and trucks as some businesses open. But while it’s comforting to see signs of “normalcy” returning in some regions, our health and our planet depend on our ability to find innovative solutions for building back, better.

The pandemic reinforced the fact that the risks of air pollution are real and personal, and that our health and our ability to fight respiratory diseases like COVID-19, depends on clean air. Stakeholders across the globe are paying more attention than ever before to air pollution, and demanding leadership and action not just from government, but also from the private sector.

Delivery: a big air pollution challenge, but also opportunity

Aileen Nowlan, Senior Manager, EDF+Business

As companies get back on their feet, business leaders can integrate strategies for reducing air pollution into their already existing climate goals by focusing on pollution from the last mile of delivery. Because right now, air pollution is impacting their bottom line, employee health and the economy — all the places we can least afford to be hurt.

Many leading companies have made public climate commitments — now, they’re busy designing strategies for meeting them. Fortunately, because poor air quality and climate change share many common sources, many of the solutions for reducing climate pollution can also decrease local air pollution. Using zero-emissions shipping will help companies meet their climate targets, while also improving public health, especially in some of our nation’s most vulnerable communities.

This period of rebuilding is the perfect opportunity for businesses to collaborate on zero-emissions shipping and test out innovations like e-cargo loading zones in cities. And some companies already are — like DHL, which recently launched an e-cargo bike trial in Miami to reduce both congestion and pollution.

Business leaders rose to the immense and immediate challenge of protecting the health of their employees and communities amid the pandemic. This same leadership needs to be sustained and extended to how companies approach climate change and air pollution.

Air pollution is a financial and reputational risk

Air pollution costs the global economy $225 billion dollars every year in lost labor income.

Poor air quality poses a risk to employee health — with coughs, sore throats, and asthma attacks likely to become more frequent. This all leads to more sick days — air pollution in central London is shown to cause the equivalent of over 650,000 sick days each year. Cities that that have severe air pollution problems will increasingly be seen as less desirable places to work and live — thereby negatively impacting talent recruitment. EDF scientists have been working on advancements in hyperlocal air pollution sensors, which are providing incredibly detailed insights about specific facilities, roads or neighborhoods and how air quality may change at those locations over the course of a day, week or year. We can now pinpoint hotspots, examine their causes, and develop solutions tailored to each city — or, in some cases, each intersection. As localized insights make pollution personal, companies will be called to account for their pollution.

Data from EDF’s hyperlocal air pollution monitoring in London have been used to map the city’s air pollution at a street level.

This was originally posted on EDF Business.

Posted in Health / Authors: aborrego / Comments are closed

Why now is the moment for cities around the world to act decisively on air pollution

By Sarah Vogel / Published: June 30, 2020

Sarah Vogel, Ph.D., is Vice President for Health.

This is the second in a series of Global Clean Air blogs on COVID-19 and air pollution. EDF scientists and program experts will share data about pollution levels during quarantine from a local and global perspective, and provide recommendations for governments and companies to Rebuild Better.

New COVID-19 air quality/ transportation measures in Bogotá, Colombia.

Around the world, we’ve seen dramatic improvement in air quality as a result of the response to COVID-19. While it’s come from an artificial and unwanted brake on the global economy, it’s drawn renewed attention to the devastating impacts of outdoor air pollution.

As many large cities around the world emerge from lockdown, city authorities need to act decisively to prevent air pollution rebounding and even exceeding pre-COVID-19 levels. That was the conclusion of participants in a “Clear Skies to Clean Air” webinar I moderated last week by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development World Wildlife Fund and Environmental Defense Fund, in collaboration with the World Bank.

The improvements in air quality seen during the COVID-19 lockdown have shown individuals and policymakers what is possible and could open the door to reinvigorated efforts to address pollution.

London and Bogotá demonstrate clean recovery strategies

The webinar heard from policymakers on the front lines of addressing air pollution: Shirley Rodrigues, Deputy Mayor of London, with responsibility for environment and energy; and Claudia López, Mayor of Bogotá, Colombia.

New COVID-19 air quality/ transportation measures in London.

Cities need devolved powers if they are to address local air pollution, argued Rodrigues: “We can’t have a centralised approach … Citizens deal with their local authorities, mayors know what is needed in their cities. Devolving powers, alongside funding, is absolutely critical so we can push the electrification agenda and the reclamation of roads, so we can avoid a car-based recovery.”

As well as discussing ongoing efforts that London has been making to encourage cycling and walking, Rodrigues also described how the city has been working with EDF to develop “hyper-local” air monitoring, which can inform a better understanding of how pollution is disproportionately affecting low-income communities. “Unless you have the data to really understand where the hotspots of pollution and hotspots of inequality [overlap], you can’t target your resources and your efforts.”

López explained how Bogotá has responded to the pandemic by accelerating existing efforts to encourage low-carbon and cleaner forms of urban transport, such as adding an additional 80 km of cycle lanes to the existing 560 km network and making greater provision for pedestrians.

“This is not going to be temporary – we’re going to take advantage of the pandemic to speak more to this agenda for clean and green transportation,” she said.

She also noted the importance of working cooperatively with adjacent local authorities: “We won’t be able to achieve our goals if surrounding municipalities don’t share our vision and our goals, because air doesn’t recognize administrative boundaries.” Similarly, clean transit systems need to be built at the regional level if they are to be effective, she added.

Targeted policy interventions by World Bank & EU

Karin Kemper, Global Director, Environment, Natural Resources and Blue Economy Global Practice at the World Bank, catalogued some of the impacts from toxic air: 7 million deaths from air pollution each year; a cost to the global economy of around $5.7 trillion in 2016 alone; a disproportionate effect on the poor; and the exacerbation of susceptibility to COVID-19.

“Fortunately, the evidence shows that there are many actions and measures we can take to improve air quality,” said Rodolfo Lacy, Director for the Environment Directorate at the OECD. The pandemic, he said, “has demonstrated the potential for targeted mitigation efforts to generate rapid and significant improvements, and the accompanying economic benefits in terms of improved health are quite relevant.”

He added that the OECD has a number of policy recommendations in this area: existing air pollution regulations are enforced; any COVID-19 responses do not worsen air quality issues; road space is reallocated to pedestrians and cyclists; low-emission zones in cities should be expanded; and air quality monitoring networks should be extended and upgraded.

“One of the things about air pollution is that it really lends itself to policy interventions,” Kemper added. In addition to the OECD recommendations, she recommended policies that aim to reduce emissions of black carbon – which has the added benefit of helping to mitigate climate change – and the removal of subsidies on fossil fuels, which currently amount to $4.7 trillion each year, or 6.5% of global GDP.

“This may be the moment, when fossil fuels are naturally cheap, to repurpose subsidies and use them for other things, such as in the health sector or education,” she said.

“Finally, carbon pricing and pollution charges are really important,” she added, noting that the World Bank has been working with Mexico and Colombia to design carbon pricing systems.

Daniel Calleja Crespo, Director General for Environment for the European Commission spoke about the massive “Next Generation EU” Plan, to ensure the economic recovery from COVID-19 is sustainable, even, inclusive and fair for all member states. To repair and prepare for the next generation, the Commission will issue 30-year bonds totalling 750 billion euros ($842 billion USD), for investing in energy efficiency in buildings and infrastructure, renewable energy development and storage, carbon capture and sequestration, biodiversity and health. He said, “This plan is based on the ‘Green Oath,’ which abides by the principle, ‘do no harm.’ This plan will create resilience and a circular economy for future generations.”

The new plan goes farther than its previously announced European Green Deal. This growth strategy transforms the EU into a modern, resource-efficient, cleaner and competitive economy where there are no net emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050, economic growth is decoupled from resource use, and no person and no place is left behind.

This was originally posted to the EDF Health blog.

Also posted in Community Organizer, Concerned Citizen, Government Official/Policymaker, Public Health/Environmental Official / Authors: svogel / Comments are closed

How new data is helping West Oakland clear the air

By Fern Uennatornwaranggoon / Published: January 21, 2020

Fern Uennatornwaranggoon is EDF’s Air Quality Policy Manager.

Community groups are using California’s first-of-its-kind Community Air Protection Plan to reduce pollution in the city’s most impacted areas.

The fight for healthier air in West Oakland spans generations. Just Ask Ms. Margaret Gordon, who has been at it since 1992. “I’ve had 16 grandchildren and one great-grandchild since then,” says the co-director of the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project (WOEIP). Two years ago her community’s efforts got a much-needed boost: California passed AB 617, establishing a program requiring the state to reduce air pollution in those areas most impacted. Under the Community Air Protection Plan, community groups, environmental organizations, industry and local air districts work with the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to develop improvement plans.

Ms. Margaret, who has been an integral part of West Oakland’s efforts, tells EDF’s Fern Uennatornwaranggoon how the plan unfolded and how data gathered from Google Street View cars fed into its development.

Fern: Why did CARB turn to WOEIP to facilitate the community air plan?

Ms. Margaret: We were asked, because of the work we have done over the last 25 years on air quality. We had demonstrated our capacity to participate technically with the air district staff. In 2015 and 2016, we started doing the air monitoring with EDF, Google, the University of Texas and Aclima, and we also deployed 100 sensors with UC Berkeley throughout West Oakland for the 100×100 project.

Fern: WOEIP and the local Air District serve as co-leads for the plan. What was the process like for developing it?

Ms. Margaret: We had a partner agreement and a charter that outlined tasks, roles, materials development, who was going to meet with whom, and what technology we were going to use. And we had neutral facilitators to support the process—all those things were identified up front. We had a steering committee that met once a month for 17 months. Steering committee members had to residents or be part of an organization within the defined target area, so they could report back to their groups. We had people from neighborhood associations and business groups, the port and a truck working group.

Fern: So what were the steps you had to go through to get to the plan?

Ms. Margaret: We had to merge the modeling with the monitoring, and we had to communicate that to the West Oakland community. We worked with the Bay Area Air Quality Management District engineers and scientists to break down the information into small bites so people could clearly understand what we were talking about—it wasn’t dumbing it down, but we didn’t want to overwhelm people. The other part of the work was developing the strategies to reduce pollution. Some of the strategies came from the co-leads, but 75% came from the residents, based on the things they saw impacting emissions in West Oakland. The strategies were all based on 4 areas of concern: exposure, proximity, land use and enforcement.

Fern: How did the data from the Google study help in developing strategies to reduce pollution?

Ms. Margaret: It helped us establish priorities and gave us ground-up evidence we’d never had before The Google car data was the first time outside of us having our own backpacks that we were able to establish on-the-ground air monitoring. It showed us hot spots, more hyperlocal, more refined data than we’d seen before. It gave us another set of lenses to hone in and really focus on certain areas. And then to overlay that with the Kaiser Permanente health data—showing cardiovascular disease. That closed a lot of gaps and connected the dots.

Fern: How did the community use data to influence the truck plan on 7th street, which is designated as a truck route?

Ms. Margaret: Between Brush Street and the Frontage Road is where we have very low- to medium-income housing. This is one of the highest sensitive receptor areas.

Fern: There’s a higher density of children under 5 and a bunch of childcare centers.

Ms. Margaret: A school, a neighborhood clinic, the family resource center, stores, and a commercial area. It’s a multi-racial community living along that corridor, and we have a homeless population.

Fern: The city had proposed prohibiting trucks from near Frontage to not quite Market, but then from Market almost all the way to the 980, they’d just leave it as is. How do you think the data addressed that?

Ms. Margaret: Looking at the data and seeing pollution all the way on 7th street, the city is looking at the truck plan again and maybe banning truck traffic along the whole stretch. They have to study it first.

Fern: It’s also worth mentioning that you and your team has been using the air quality maps for educational and outreach purpose. And next month, the Oakland Museum of California will be featuring WOEIP’s work on air pollution and this kind of spatial data in a new exhibition.

Fern: Did you learn anything in this process that would be useful to other communities trying to reduce pollution?

Ms. Margaret: You have to have the commitment and the foresight and be willing to see the light at the end of the tunnel, to go through the hoops and the barriers and the challenges. And you have to be able to transcend your skills to other people within your community, while also transcending the understanding of agency staff and business. We have to figure out how we could coexist to make this better—this is all about collaboration and problem solving and having real, authentic equity in doing what needs to be done. And it’s not always about complaining but also having some resolution.

Learn more about our air quality mapping projects in Oakland.

This was originally posted on the EDF Health blog.

Also posted in Oakland, Public Health/Environmental Official / Authors: fuennatornwaranggoon / Comments are closed