The impact of air pollution on human health constitutes a serious public health crisis across Asia and the Pacific. About 4 billion people, around 92 percent of the region’s population, are exposed to levels of air pollution that pose a significant risk to their health. Reducing this health burden requires further action in Asia and the Pacific to reduce emissions that lead to the formation of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and ground-level ozone, which undermine people’s health and well-being as well as food production and the environment.
This report identifies 25 clean air measures that can positively impact human health, crop yields, climate change, and socio-economic development as well as contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The analysis, which takes the region’s considerable diversity into account, groups the selected measures into three categories that are fully described within the report:
- Conventional emission controls focusing on emissions that lead to the formation of fine particulate matter;
- Further (next-stage) air-quality measures for reducing emissions that lead to the formation of PM2.5 and are not yet major components of clean air policies in many parts of the region; and
- Measures contributing to development priority goals with benefits for air quality.
Implementing these measures could help 1 billion people breathe cleaner air by 2030 and reduce global warming by a third of a degree Celsius by 2050.