Global Clean Air

Electrifying New York City’s trucks and buses would save billions and prevent hundreds of deaths per year, new study finds

Full electrification of MHDVs in New York City would save $2.4 billion in health costs per year.

Diesel-powered trucks, buses and other heavy-duty vehicles—also known as medium- and heavy-duty vehicles (MHDVs)—are some of the biggest emitters of health harming pollution on U.S. roads. That’s why many states are taking action to electrify their heavy-duty fleets over the next decade. A new study published in Environmental Research: Health tallies up the benefits of such a conversion for New York City, finding it would save $2.4 billion in health costs, prevent hundreds of deaths and more.

The study, coauthored by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Boston University and Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), underscores the importance of state-level actions, such as the Advanced Clean Truck (ACT) rule, to cut climate pollution and improve health. Amid industry pushback and the Trump administration’s efforts to halt the electric vehicle transition and undermine clean air standards, New York must lead by implementing the ACT rule this year.

Electrification would bring real annual benefits, especially for most affected communities

The study estimated that full electrification of MHDVs in NYC by 2040 would:

  • Save $2.4 billion in health costs
  • Prevent 248 deaths
  • Prevent 173 childhood asthma emergency department visits
  • Avoid 205 new pediatric asthma cases
  • Prevent over 52,000 pediatric asthma exacerbations

“This study demonstrates how electrifying New York City’s trucks and buses could improve public health, clean air and address climate emissions, especially in communities that have historically borne the heaviest burden of air pollution,” said Ananya Roy, EDF Senior Health Scientist and a co-author.

The study found that communities currently hardest hit by freight truck pollution, including predominantly black, Hispanic and/or low-wealth neighborhoods, such as the South Bronx, would benefit greatly from the transition. Four in ten census tracts with the worst air pollution would see their total traffic related air pollution (NO2) fall by at least 30%.

“The South Bronx is an epicenter of environmental injustice, primarily rooted in operations and infrastructure that see many thousands of MHDVs jam our streets and slice through our communities,” said Arif Ullah, Executive Director of South Bronx Unite, a community health organization. This has resulted in an asthma crisis and a range of other poor health outcomes, diminishing our quality of life and rippling across generations.”

“We have long known that the historic discriminatory siting of pollution-causing infrastructure, including highways, warehouses and bus depots, medium- and heavy-duty vehicles are disproportionately concentrated in low-income, communities of color, added Eddie Bautista, Executive Director of the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance. “This analysis exemplifies what we can expect to see when we accomplish our goals to electrify the transportation sector as we work to meet our climate mandates.”

How MHDVs contribute to New York’s pollution

At least 1 million MHDVs are on roads across New York state, travelling a collective 17 billion miles annually in 2020. In New York City, traffic is a major source of health harming air pollution, accounting for 14% of PM2.5 and 28% of NOx emissions. Heavy-duty diesel vehicles make up just 6% of the vehicle activity in the city but contribute more than half of tailpipe PM2.5 and NOx emissions. They are also responsible for about a quarter of all on-road vehicle climate emissions in the state.

New York’s Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT) rule could help

New York State adopted the ACT rule in 2021, which requires truck and bus manufacturers to gradually produce and sell an increasing percentage of zero-emission MHDVs starting this year. But state legislators are currently weighing whether to pause implementation. Such a delay would disrupt the adoption timeline and postpone essential health benefits found in this research. New York must stand firm and proceed with implementation this year.

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Air Tracker expands to Rio de Janeiro, helping officials enforce air quality standards

  • EDF's Sergio Sanchez unveils Air Tracker for Rio de Janeiro at the U20 Mayors Summit in Rio de Janeiro on November 15, 2024. Photo by Alex Franco for Environmental Defense Fund.
    EDF's Sergio Sanchez unveils Air Tracker for Rio de Janeiro at the U20 Mayors Summit in Rio de Janeiro on November 15, 2024. Photo by Alex Franco for Environmental Defense Fund.

What’s new: At the Urban 20 Mayors (U20) Summit, Environmental Defense Fund announced the expansion of Air Tracker—its cutting-edge air quality monitoring tool—to Rio de Janeiro today. Air Tracker is an interactive, real-time mapping tool that uses trusted scientific models to track air pollution sources accurately. It combines air pollution and weather forecasting to reveal not only which pollutants are in the air but also where they originate. Learn more about Air Tracker in this short explainer video.

Actions to lower air pollution in Brazil’s major cities can bring significant health benefits. According to the World Health Organization, around 61,000 Brazilians die prematurely each year due to current air pollution levels. Air Tracker will provide valuable insights to national and city officials as they implement Brazil’s new air quality law, enacted earlier this year, which aims to help 216 million Brazilians breathe cleaner air by 2030. Air Tracker is free and publicly available and can therefore also empower residents to identify polluters in their communities and flag them for regulators.

What they’re saying: Officials at the national and state levels expressed enthusiasm about the potential of Air Tracker to assist them in their efforts to cut pollution in urban and rural areas alike. “We are excited to incorporate the advanced capabilities of the Air Tracker into our pollution management toolkit,” said Rafael Barbosa Campos, Air Quality manager of the Rio de Janeiro State Environment Agency. “This technology will allow us to identify sources more quickly and accurately, in addition to strengthening collaboration with communities to reduce emissions at the source. It will help ensure cleaner air and better health for our residents.”

“The implementation of Air Tracker in Brazilian cities is a major step, directly benefiting millions of residents and setting a model for improving urban air quality across Brazil and beyond,” added Brazil’s National Secretary of Urban Environment, Adalberto Maluf. “Nationally, it also brings new potential to monitor rural areas, tracking wildfire smoke and pollution sources in critical regions like the Amazon.”

How does Air Tracker work? When users drop a pin on Air Tracker’s map, it visualizes data on some key measures:

  • Local air pollution levels (currently PM2.5 and PM10)
  • Key areas where sources are likely located
  • The path pollution travels, based on wind speed and direction

Air Tracker provides both real-time and historical data, allowing users to look back up to 6 months to understand long-term trends or the impact of specific polluting events such as wildfires, intentional burning or industrial accidents. Its unified data view provides metrics for informed decision-making, while its capabilities allow for quick responses to pollution spikes.

With support from the Clean Air Fund and the Breathe Cities Program, Air Tracker empowers city and national governments by helping them identify pollution hotspots, enforce regulations in a more targeted way and engage communities in safeguarding public health and the climate. Today’s launch in Rio de Janeiro expands Air Tracker internationally for the first time—an expansion that is expected to continue with the addition of São Paulo in the coming weeks.

What’s next? Environmental Defense Fund is currently partnering with officials in Rio de Janeiro to provide training on Air Tracker’s capabilities and how to best integrate the tool to support their monitoring and enforcement systems. Key partners include:

  • The Ministry of Environment and Climate Change of Brazil
  • Rio de Janeiro’s Instituto Estadual de Ambiente (INEA)
  • The Secretaria Municipal de Ambiente da Cidade (SMAC)
  • The State of São Paulo Environmental Company (CETESB)
  • Civil society organizations and academia.

EDF’s Senior Policy Director of Global Clean Air, Sergio Sánchez, expressed gratitude to city leaders. “We’re excited to partner with officials and communities in Brazil to launch Air Tracker, empowering residents to understand their local air quality and hold polluters accountable. This is a key step toward scaling clean air solutions, strengthening regulations and advancing public health for all.”

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Six ways to ramp up climate and clean air action in 2025

Six ways to ramp up climate and clean air action in 2025

2024 has been a significant year for the climate and air pollution crisis, both in terms of the mounting impacts and increased action. Extreme climate events like hurricanes and wildfires devastated communities around the world, forcing the issue to the forefront of public consciousness. Meanwhile countries, companies and communities took some noteworthy actions to track and reduce emissions, including major commitments made at COP28 to cut methane followed by the launch of MethaneSAT and the first UN resolution on clean air.

Climate change and air pollution are dual challenges that severely impact our health and as such must be solved together.

EDF together with the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) and Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) convened cross-sector clean air leaders to discuss how we can take an integrated approach to cutting greenhouse gases and air pollutants to protect human health. Together, we took stock of how far we’ve come, assessed some hard truths and identified the biggest opportunities in front of us to secure meaningful wins. The conversation captured some important learnings in the struggle to accelerate clean air and climate action that help point towards a pathway forward. Here are six takeaways.

1. Investments in data and research are paying off

Dr. Maria Neira, Director of the Public Health, Environment and Social Determinants of Health Department of the World Health Organization, shared how she has been encouraged by a shift in the recent global pollution dialogue away from merely describing the problem and toward building solutions. We know that research and monitoring efforts, some of which EDF has led, have been essential to understanding the source and impacts of pollution and to identifying solutions. The dialogue shift described by Dr. Neira suggests those efforts are starting to pay off as governments and companies are using pollution insights to identify solutions.

2. Cutting emissions takes resources and capacity

Global air pollution mitigation is severely underfunded, a crucial issue explored more below. But Martina Otto, head of UNEP’s CCAC, emphasized that governments need technical assistance as much as funding to help them set-up and maintain air quality monitoring systems that can enable effective enforcement, track clean air actions and identify new pollution sources.

This was echoed by Brazil’s National Secretary of Urban Environment, Adalberto Maluf, who outlined his country’s current efforts to implement air pollution standards including upgrading the national air quality monitoring network. The CCAC’s Clean Air Flagship, launched earlier this year, is a meaningful step toward meeting this need by mobilizing funds and fostering a community of practice where countries can learn from each other and share resources through the Air Quality Management Exchange.

3. We need to get better at tailoring our messaging

During her remarks, Valerie Hickey, Global Director for Environment, Natural Resources and Blue Economy at the World Bank, called for a fresh look at how we communicate about air pollution and its health risks, especially to those most affected. She gave an example of a farmer in Northern India who continues to engage in agricultural burning in full knowledge of the health risks, because he also knows that without it, he couldn’t earn enough to sustain his family.

In a second example, Hickey described a health minister who is told that every $1 she invests in cleaner air returns $9 in health benefits. While the Minister knows this is true in the long term, she has several more urgent needs where the $1 she has can return $2 or $3 right away. Throw in the pressure to deliver before a coming election—what would you do? Making the case for avoided loss doesn’t often move the policy or political decision maker. “We have to find the message that meets the person we’re speaking to,” concluded Hickey.

4. Companies are stepping up to track their emissions and implement reduction plans. More need to follow suit.

Many countries and some companies are developing greenhouse gas inventories to support plans to cut emissions and meet net zero goals. But few have integrated air pollutants into these assessments to address the tradeoffs and synergies. That’s why SEI created a guide to help companies track climate and air pollution emissions across their supply chains and design plans to reduce them. Research Associate in the Air Pollution Group, Eleni Michalopoulou, explained how SEI is partnering with Inter IKEA group, a member of the World Economic Forum’s Alliance for Clean Air, to do just that.

With SEI’s help, IKEA recently established a goal and detailed plan to reduce the company’s climate emissions by 50% by 2030. According to IKEA’s Head of Climate and Air Quality, Sriram Rajagopal, the company is evaluating its entire supply chain, from raw materials to product production, shipping and even end of life disposal. He says IKEA is on track to meet its goal and maybe even exceed it on key air pollutants such as PM2.5, black carbon, nitrogen oxides (NOx) and sulfur dioxide (SOx).

5. Some countries have already made great strides, and more are stepping up

Angela Churie Kallhauge, EDF’s Executive Vice President for Impact, opened the event by describing the immense progress that the city of Beijing has made on air pollution in recent years, going from smog to blue skies in little more than a decade. This example demonstrates the potential to cut pollution and drastically improve health in a short time frame as we continue to decarbonize. This is a differentiator for clean air action that our community can do a better job to highlight for leaders and funders.

We also learned about how Brazil has been taking significant steps to cut pollution. Sec. Maluf shared how the country recently approved its first ever national air quality program, which will commission a detailed emissions inventory, improve its national monitoring network and tighten air quality standards. EDF is assisting Brazil’s government in this effort by advising on the new standards, developing an integrated approach to managing climate and air pollutants and expanding our Air Tracker tool to its two largest cities, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

6. Air quality funding isn’t likely to surge any time soon – it’s time to get creative

Jane Burston, CEO of the Clean Air Fund (CAF) brought another dose of reality to the conversation by sharing the results of CAF’s latest State of Global Air Quality Funding Report: Global financing for air quality projects saw a tiny increase in recent years, but remains dismally low at about 1% of global development and 2% of public climate funds. Burston echoed an important point made by Hickey from the World Bank: Air quality is unlikely to see a dramatic funding boost anytime soon, so we must find more creative ways to reallocate or repurpose money that’s already available to maximize benefits for clean air, climate and health. Both speakers shared a few thoughts for how to do this, including repurposing agricultural subsidies, providing seed funding to de-risk private sector investments, and strengthening our case to the philanthropic sector.

What’s next: This conversation brought a grounded optimism to the real progress we can make to tackle the global air pollution crisis. While low funding remains our greatest challenge, our messaging about the scope and urgency of the problem has broken through to countries, communities and increasingly companies around the world. Now it is incumbent upon us to translate what we know into meaningful, tailored stories and to focus on metric-driven solutions that can help redirect existing resources to deliver emissions reductions. By taking these next steps while approaching air pollution and climate change as the interrelated problems that they are, we can deliver tangible health benefits to a more people than ever in the coming critical years.

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EDF team visits Brazil to expand Air Tracker, support clean air action

The EDF team finalizes its partnership with the Secretaria Municipal de Meio Ambiente da Cidade after a meeting with the City of Rio De Janeiro.

The EDF team finalizes its partnership with the Secretaria Municipal de Meio Ambiente da Cidade after a meeting with the City of Rio De Janeiro.

What’s new: Our recent trip to Brazil in June gave EDF the opportunity to formalize partnerships with city and state officials in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, as these megacities seek new ways to better track and address air pollution.

Alex Franco, Sergio Sanchez and I also met with city experts, academics and community members to discuss how Air Tracker can help these growing metro areas as they try to address persistent challenges from soot and other pollutants.

These cities pose new challenges for Air Tracker, such as integrating a global weather forecasting model for the Brazilian expansion and addressing data limitations in areas like modeling, emissions inventories and ambient air quality, but we’re looking forward to learning how we can adapt the tool to meet the needs of Brazil’s cities.

Why it matters: Most Brazilians (90%) live in cities, where air pollution levels exceed the World Health Organization’s recommendations. The Brazilian government is set to adopt a resolution in September that will establish gradually stricter standards for soot (PM2.5) and other air pollutants over the next 20 years. However, current air quality levels expose millions to unhealthy air. We hope our work there will help Brazil achieve its air quality goals to protect public health and serve as a model across the region.

The good news: Local, state, and national leaders are eager to tackle air pollution. EDF has partnered with the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change since last year to enhance regulations and enforcement plans to help reduce air pollution on a national scale.

EDF has also partnered with local authorities in Rio de Janeiro (SMAC, Rio de Janeiro’s Municipal Secretariat of Environment) and São Paulo (CETESB, the São Paulo State Environmental Agency) to deploy Air Tracker to analyze patterns in air pollution and learn how it moves through the city. This will help identify major sources and develop effective solutions. They’ve already given us a list of hotspots like industrial areas, warehouses where vehicles idle and traffic chokepoints where they feel Air Tracker can help make an impact.

Beyond that, we’re excited that local leaders are interested in connecting with community partners as well as state and health officials to build broad support for clean air solutions.

Our trip also gave us the opportunity to meet with nonprofit community leaders and academics from across Latin America at an air quality modeling conference, where Alex Franco presented on Air Tracker. These kinds of local connections will be critical as we improve Air Tracker, so it can meet the policy needs of Brazilian leaders and the residents they serve.

Go Deeper: This trip was made possible thanks to the Clean Air Fund and its generous support for the global expansion of Air Tracker. It’s also part of our ongoing efforts to reduce air pollution across Latin America and the Caribbean.

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New State of Global Air report shows pollution’s deadly impact

The Health Effects Institute’s new State of Global Air 2024 report finds that air pollution ranks as the second leading risk factor for death worldwide.

Photo credit: Belle Co

What’s new: The Health Effects Institute’s new State of Global Air 2024 report finds that air pollution ranks as the second leading risk factor for death, including for children under 5. Yes, you read that right. Air pollution is now the second leading risk factor for death, contributing to an estimated 8 million deaths in 2021. That’s more than deaths due to poor diet and even tobacco.

Why it matters: The report further sounds the global alarm bell on the devastating health impacts of air pollution, contributing to heart disease, stroke, diabetes, lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). It analyzes air quality data and health impacts globally and details exposure levels and related health impacts of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), which is associated with vehicle traffic, a major global source of both poor air pollution and greenhouse gases.

Our take: While sounding a critical alarm bell on the urgency of this issue, the report also provides insights into where to focus solutions. Here are my top takeaways:

  1. The hardest hit are the oldest and youngest. Long-term exposure to PM 2.5 contributes to diseases including heart disease, lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), stroke, type 2 diabetes, lower respiratory infections and adverse birth outcomes that disproportionally impact the elderly and young. We need to target health prevention, education and emission reduction strategies to better protect these sensitive populations.
  2. There are disparities between nations. Populations from low- and middle-income countries are exposed to 1.3-4 times as much PM 2.5., and countries in South Asia and Africa face the highest disease burden. We need to direct the resources where the problem is greatest. Yet, according to the 2023 State of the Global Air Quality Funding report by the Clean Air Fund, only 1% of international development funding went towards air quality over the past 6 years. And from 2017-2021, the entire continent of Africa received only 5% of the total funding for air quality. The gravity of the air pollution health crisis demands a far deeper global investment given the tremendous health care costs of air pollution—which the World Bank has estimated at $8 trillion or 6% of global GDP.
  3. Climate change is making this worse. Many sources of air pollution also emit greenhouse gases, like tailpipe emissions from vehicles, worsening air quality as they warm the planet. Climate change intensifies droughts, contributing to severe wildfires and dust storms that increase fine particle pollution. Meanwhile, more frequent heat waves enable pollutants like nitrogen oxides to speed the formation of harmful ozone, exposure to which is increasing in many regions. The report underscores the connection between the climate crisis and its toll on human health. The connection between air pollution and climate change requires an integrated approach when assessing the benefits and costs of climate mitigation solutions, from reducing emissions from oil and gas operations to increasing public transit and switching to renewable energy sources.
  4. There is some good news. PM 2.5 levels seem to be stabilizing in some regions, and the disease burden from household air pollution has decreased. Further, there is progress in expanding the ability to measure and monitor air quality, especially in parts of the globe where little to no air quality monitoring was available on the ground. Understanding the sources and impacts of pollution at the local and regional scale is a critical step needed to better tackle harmful emissions.

The report points to progress in Senegal, South Africa, Morocco and Rwanda, where they are taking meaningful steps toward understanding local emissions and are improving their air quality monitoring networks. EDF is a partner in the Clean Air Catalyst program that is working in Nairobi, Kenya, Indore, India and Jakarta, Indonesia to expand air monitoring and management capacity and build partnerships to tackle significant sources of pollution, including that from transportation.

The State of the Global Air report is an important contribution to the global effort for clean air, providing robust analyses that indicate the severity of the problem and help inform where resources and solutions must be directed.

Air pollution is a global health crisis, and we have the solutions today that can improve the lives of millions and accelerate climate action.

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Collaborative insights: Empowering health advocacy on methane in Mexico

A panel discussion hosted by the Centro Mexicano de Derecho Ambiental (CEMDA) on the Health impacts of the oil and gas sector on communities across Mexico. Photo by Veronica Southerland.

A panel discussion hosted by the Centro Mexicano de Derecho Ambiental (CEMDA) on the health impacts of the oil and gas sector on communities across Mexico. Photo by Veronica Southerland.

What’s new: EDF’s Global Clean Air team was proud to launch the Sall Methane and Health project in March of 2024, a new collaboration funded by the Sall Family Foundation to track the health impacts of methane emitted by the oil and gas industry in Mexico. Key partners in the project include:

  • The Centro Mexicano de Derecho Ambiental (CEMDA), a civil society organization that works to strengthen legal protections for the environment in Mexico.
  • El Observatorio Mexicano de Emisiones de Metano (Obmem), a coalition that advances national and global agreements to reduce methane emissions in the oil and gas industry.

At the launch, EDF and CEMDA connected with community groups and journalists, highlighting relevant EDF findings about methane emissions in Mexico. One such finding is that methane emissions could be up-to 2.5 times higher than reported by government sources.

Why it matters: By raising awareness, fostering collaborations with diverse stakeholders and building rapport with impacted communities, policymakers and journalists in Mexico, EDF is not only enhancing scientific knowledge of methane’s impacts but also laying the groundwork for concrete policies aimed at addressing environmental and health concerns.

The details: The March 13 panel presentation with CEMDA titled “¿Huellas invisibles? Cómo impacta el metano a las comunidades,” shed light on methane’s effects on communities. Sergio Sánchez and Veronica Southerland presented on methane sources, EDF’s past research work and forthcoming efforts to highlight health impacts and strengthen methane regulations.

The EDF team also met with CEMDA and Obmem, who were instrumental in solidifying diverse cross-sector partnerships for the project. Discussions revolved around project goals, potential roles, and the formulation of a $50,000 subgrant that would enable CEMDA to convene Mexican methane policy experts to help build consensus and momentum toward solutions.

What’s next: As the project gets underway, key focus areas will include:

  • Disproportionate impacts on vulnerable demographics like women and children
  • Replicating previous US studies in Mexico
  • Expanding research avenues to encompass broader air pollutant attributable health burden studies in Mexico.

As the project moves forward, strengthening collaboration between EDF, CEMDA, Obmem and other groups will prove pivotal in shaping future insights generated and policy solutions. The EDF team will continue to share updates on the Sall Methane and Health project here on the Global Clean Air blog as they unfold—stay tuned!

Veronica Southerland is an environmental health scientist with expertise in the health impacts of air pollution.

Learn more about the health impacts of methane here

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Mobile monitoring reveals congestion effect for vehicle emissions in London

University of York mobile laboratory for measuring ambient air pollution.

University of York mobile laboratory for measuring ambient air pollution (Photo taken by Shona Wilde).

New study shows just how much congestion intensifies emissions from diesel vehicles  

In a recently published study, researchers from the University of York and Environmental Defense Fund show how traffic exacerbates nitrogen oxide (NOx) pollution from road vehicles, in particular from intense emitters like diesel trucks and buses, pointing to solutions that can bring an outsize benefit to air quality.  

Comparing pollution with targeted monitoring  

EDF and York designed a study that measured air pollution along two distinct routes in the London metropolitan area—one that was extremely congested in Central London and the other farther from the city center where drivers experience more free-flowing conditions including some highway driving. The Central London route was identified as a pollution hotspot in the Breathe London Pilot project, which provided motivation for the new targeted study.  

Using York’s mobile monitoring laboratory equipped with fast-response instruments, we collected ambient measurements of both NOx and Carbon Dioxide (CO2) for two weeks along the two different routes to quantify the emission intensity of the London fleet, which included a wide range of vehicle types driving in both heavy congestion and light-traffic conditions. We also used dashboard video recordings to identify which specific vehicle types were the likely cause of hotspots.  

Using the latest analysis methods, we mapped the spatial patterns of persistent emission sources, while simultaneously revealing the attributes of the most significant emitters within the vehicle fleet. We found that NOx emissions were a factor of two times higher for fleets with a high proportion of diesel vehicles operating in congested driving conditions, and a factor of five times higher for intense emitters like SCR-retrofit diesel buses and heavy goods vehicles in stop-and-go traffic. 

We then compared our data to an existing database of measurements from remote sensors, which measure vehicle emissions more directly at the tailpipe, to verify our ambient data against an established reference. The comparison further demonstrated the congestion effect whereby fleets predominately composed of vehicles rated with the highest emission standards (Euro 6/VI) generated NOx pollution that would be expected from a fleet of lower standard vehicles (Euro 2/II-5/V), when impacted by high traffic. 

Our new approach allowed us to focus on the emission intensity of both the overall fleet and specific high-emitting vehicles and make comparisons to established measurements of real-world emissions. The results provided greater insight than standard measurements solely focused on total ambient concentrations.  

Real-time, high-frequency air pollution measurements.

Real-time, high-frequency air pollution measurements. (Photo taken by Shona Wilde)

New methods increase understanding with fewer resources 

Beyond illustrating the impact congestion has on emission intensity, the study shows the feasibility of extracting valuable insights from reasonably short mobile monitoring campaigns. Compared to previous large-scale studies, such as the ~1-year long Breathe London mobile study, this campaign was less resource intensive, requiring just two weeks of driving and reducing vehicle and instrument maintenance. This campaign simplified field logistics and increased the efficiency of the data analysis. The new method could also prove useful to scientists and policy makers who want to learn more about local fleet emissions under a variety of traffic conditions in places that aren’t currently well-monitored. Mobile monitoring provided a continuous picture of emissions along a route, not limited to individual locations like stationary monitors.  

This approach offers policy makers a new way to spot specific vehicle types and conditions that produce greater emission intensity, so they can develop targeted interventions and monitor progress over time in a cost-effective manner.  

While there is no substitute for knowing the exact vehicle emitting pollution, as one might find using remote sensing, this new technique provides useful information in places where remote sensing is either impossible or impractical. It’s also especially useful when exploring the impacts of congestion, as remote sensing is not well suited for stop-and-go traffic.  

While the project focused on London, the methods and insights developed can be useful for other cities, particularly those where there are diesel vehicles operating in heavy traffic. 

Practical policy applications 

Because this method identifies the effects of the highest-polluting vehicles in the most congested areas, it gives local transportation officials a clear roadmap to develop the most impactful solutions.  

The adverse effect of congestion on tailpipe emissions can be eliminated with the transition to electric vehicles, which has added benefits for the climate, especially for heavy-duty diesel trucks and buses. Officials could also consider introducing solutions like restricting operating hours for these vehicles in high-traffic areas or creating bus lanes, both of which could ease congestion. The approach could help determine which city-owned vehicles need to come in for maintenance to restore performance of aging exhaust aftertreatment technology. 

In cities that already implement clean air zones and technology retrofit programs, air quality can improve even further if high congestion can be better addressed in places where diesel vehicles operate. In London, where the ULEZ has already helped reduce ambient Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) concentrations, accelerating replacement of the most potent polluters with electric vehicles, starting with the most congested routes, would provide additional climate, health and mobility benefits improving the driving experience for everyone. 

To learn more about the study, read the article in Atmospheric Environment: X.  

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New interactive data story highlights air pollution and health impacts in the South Bronx

South Bronx Unite's new interactive data story clearly maps the concentration of warehouses and other truck-attracting facilities in the South Bronx and other parts of New York City. It also maps the associated disproportionate health burden borne by the community, including higher childhood asthma rates.

South Bronx Unite’s new interactive data story clearly maps the concentration of warehouses and other truck-attracting facilities in the South Bronx and throughout New York City. It also maps some of the health impacts associated with the air pollution emitted by the facilities and large diesel trucks that often come with them.

What’s new: EDF partner, South Bronx Unite, has just launched an interactive data visualization that’s mapping what residents of the South Bronx have long experienced—that air pollution from industrial facilities is taking a disproportionate toll on the health of residents in their community and across New York City. For the last year, a multi-disciplinary team at EDF has been collaborating with South Bronx Unite to improve local air quality monitoring and create engaging tools that tell the stories found in monitoring data.

Why it matters: Every city relies on large industrial facilities, and New York City is no exception. Think waste transfer stations, power plants, printing facilities and warehouses that support in-time delivery services. Many of these facilities are major air polluters in the neighborhoods where they are placed. Beyond the facilities themselves, the heavy-duty vehicles that they attract, such as large delivery trucks, are among the leading polluters on the road.

What we know: For decades, South Bronx residents have faced disproportionately high air pollution and asthma rates. Leveraging recent EDF research that describes air pollution’s burden of childhood asthma, the new webpage now backs up residents’ lived experiences with even more quantitative information, presented as a narrated interactive visualization that helps tell the story.

How the work has been used: Presenting this additional data in an easy-to-understand format will help advance tangible policy change that can improve health outcomes in the South Bronx and beyond. South Bronx Unite leaders recently participated in NYC Climate Week events where they used this tool to tell the story of their air quality monitoring efforts and what they will mean for public health.

Moving forward: South Bronx Unite will continue to use the air quality and health insights from this new tool to advance their advocacy goals. They have begun working closely with the EDF New York State team to build consensus with local coalitions.

Real policy actions are already taking shape in New York that could help alleviate the health impacts of warehouses and other polluting facilities in the South Bronx and across the state. In November 2023, state lawmakers introduced the Clean Deliveries Act, which would require the state to review the negative impacts of so-called “mega-warehouses” and establish emissions reduction plans.

South Bronx Unite brings together neighborhood residents, community organizations, academic institutions and allies to improve and protect the social, environmental and economic future of the South Bronx. Learn more about their work and how you can support it at southbronxunite.org.

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New science to help policymakers address unequal impacts of air pollution

NO2 pollution in the United States and the extent to which tools capture differences in exposure by marginalized groups

This graphic maps nitrogen dioxide pollution levels in the United States as quantified by satellite, monitor and model data sources (left) and shows how these datasets differ in estimating inequities in pollution exposure (right)

What’s new: EDF and partners have just published new research that explores how novel data sources, including satellites and computer models, can help improve our ability to map, identify, track and reduce disparities in air pollution exposure and health impacts.

What we know: Air pollution in the United States has declined dramatically over the last several decades, thanks to strong, protective clean air policies. And yet, unjust disparities in pollution exposure remain, with people of color in the United States burdened by higher levels of health-harming pollution than white people, regardless of income. One root cause of this pollution inequity is historic disinvestment in communities of color through racist policies like redlining, along with discriminatory siting of highways and polluting industrial facilities.

Levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), a key health-harming pollutant emitted by trucks, cars and industrial facilities, can vary substantially at fine spatial scales – even from one end of a block to the other. For example, an EDF study in West Oakland, California found that NO2 levels could be up to four times higher in areas of the neighborhood close to truck traffic and other pollution sources.

Research and policy decision-making has historically relied on NO2 measurements from government regulatory monitors—complex and expensive stationary instruments that must meet rigorous standards. Data from these monitors helps the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) identify areas where air pollution levels exceed Clean Air Act health standards and guides actions to reduce pollution. However, given how much NO2 concentrations can vary across small distances, it is unlikely we will ever deploy enough of these monitors to enable a full understanding of exposure disparities that exist between population groups.

What this research adds: New datasets, including satellite data, statistical models and photochemical models, can estimate NO2 at a relatively high spatial resolution and across the entire United States. Our new research compared estimates of NO2 levels and racial/ethnic exposure disparities using these novel data sources to estimates based on traditional data from the US EPA regulatory monitoring network.

The new NO2 data sources showed that Black, Hispanic, Asian and multiracial Americans experienced average NO2 levels that were 15-50% higher than those experienced by the US population in 2019. Meanwhile, the non-Hispanic white population experienced levels that were 5-15% lower. In contrast, data from the regulatory monitors indicated more moderate patterns of racial/ethnic disparities, suggesting that the regulatory network does not currently provide a full understanding of inequity in pollution exposure.

NO2
dataset*

How it can contribute to better policies and enforcement

Regulatory Monitors • Monitoring attainment of National Ambient Air Quality Standards
• Ground-truthing satellite and model datasets
Satellites • Guiding placement of future regulatory monitors or measurement campaigns
• Identifying potential pollution
Photochemical and statistical models • Tracking and reporting trends over time in pollution disparities
• Estimating NO2-attributable disease burdens and associated disparities
• Quantifying source sector contributions to ambient NO2 (Photochemical models)

Moving forward: This research demonstrates that policymakers and regulators will need to incorporate new sources of data beyond the existing regulatory monitoring network to accurately understand which policies are or could be most effective in helping close the racial-ethnic gap in air pollution exposure.

The table above outlines how satellite and modeling data can complement existing sources. Satellite data can be leveraged to identify pollution hotspots currently not measured by regulatory monitors, which could guide placement of new government monitors and investigations of potential emissions sources. Air pollution models can enable tracking and reporting of pollution disparity trends over time   and make it easier to quantify health impacts.

Integrating these new data sources into regulatory decision-making would improve the coverage of the regulatory monitoring network, enable a more complete understanding of inequities in air pollution exposure and inform policies aimed at mitigating this environmental injustice.

Maria Harris in a Senior Scientist at Environmental Defense Fund. Learn more about her work here

*Table adapted from Table 1 in Kerr et al. 2023

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Four ways air quality technology can improve public health in Latin America and around the world

As countries around the world work to develop strategies to improve air quality and achieve climate goals, innovations in monitoring technology and data analysis are opening up new avenues to reduce air pollution and protect our health.  

In Latin America, policymakers and other key stakeholders from 15 countries attended a recent workshop co-hosted by Environmental Defense Fund and the United Nations Environment Programme’s Latin America and Caribbean office and discussed how a regional partnership approach to improve air quality, protect global health and advance climate goals can harness the power of new technologies and analytics to leapfrog existing barriers to advancing clean air. By integrating insights from new data-driven tools, policymakers in Latin America and around the world can more effectively use limited resources to shape policies that provide the greatest air quality and health benefits. 

Here are four ways technology and data innovation can advance clean air solutions: 

Locate pollution sources

Identifying air pollution sources—where it’s coming from, who’s responsible—is a critical component of air quality management. But emissions inventories and traditional models have limited ability to help us pinpoint the likely sources of local pollution when source information is lacking. 

One resource to address this uncertainty is Air Tracker, an online tool developed by EDF and partners that uses real-time meteorological models and available air quality data to help users locate likely sources of local pollution. 

Air Tracker has the potential to work even in locations without comprehensive air pollution data, although additional data sources—from low-cost sensors, weather data and more—improve the tool’s accuracy and ability to better pinpoint pollution hotspots.  

Evaluate health impacts

Satellite data is another game-changing technology that enables us to better understand the magnitude and distribution of air pollution’s health impacts at an unprecedented scale. A recent study by researchers at George Washington University used satellite data and hyperlocal modeling to estimate that nearly 2 million new pediatric asthma cases can be attributed to air pollution in 13,000 cities around the world. 

EDF used this analysis to develop maps that visualize the proportion of pediatric asthma cases attributable to air pollution in major U.S. cities.  

This study and others like it open up new opportunities to find previously invisible hotspots of air pollution—and to develop policies to protect the health of people who are first and worst affected by air pollution. 

Improve compliance with air quality rules

Actionable data on air quality is critical for enforcement of health-protective air quality regulations. In Houston, Texas, more than 600 industrial facilities along the Houston Ship Channel sit in close proximity to residential neighborhoods. While these facilities are subject to federal and state regulations, permit violations and industrial accidents are common, and enforcement from state regulators has historically been lax.  

New data insights and technologies can support local governments in proactively identifying the most high-risk facilities and target monitoring and enforcement efforts there.  

EDF worked with Houston-area officials to develop a Facility Risk Ranking tool, which compiles multiple data sources to identify and rank the most “high-risk” facilities. Local staff used this tool to prioritize locations for mobile monitoring with a specialized air toxics instrument around those facilities, identifying hotspots of pollutants and sending investigators to inspect likely sources. 

Evaluate policy strategies

Finally, new approaches to air quality monitoring and data analysis open exciting possibilities for improving how we evaluate the effectiveness of policy strategies – both before and after implementation.  

One approach to evaluate policies is to use “hyperlocal” or neighborhood-level monitoring to track changes in air quality. In the Breathe London Pilot Project, EDF partnered with the Greater London Authority to deploy a network of low-cost monitors alongside mobile monitoring. We used this data to evaluate air quality benefits from London’s Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ), which established fees for high-polluting vehicles to drive in central London, and developed a guide of best practices for other regions looking to integrate this kind of data analysis into policy evaluations. 

Combining tools to strengthen compliance with clean air laws 

All of these innovative approaches help us to better understand air quality challenges and develop effective policies to address them. By leveraging new sources of air quality data alongside traditional regulatory approaches, we can enhance policy and enforcement efforts with hard evidence and allocate resources for the highest impact solutions. 

A more sophisticated understanding of air can also help us to document improvements to air quality that are associated with climate policies – a priority for many countries as they work toward fulfilling international climate commitments.  

Also posted in Climate, Environmental Justice, Mexico, Monitoring, Partners / Comments are closed