Air pollution in South Asia has decreased in 2022 but remains a leading cause of death Report August 29, 2024

South Asia remains the world's worst air pollution region (Arun SANKAR)

By AFP - Agence France Presse

Air pollution in South Asia has decreased in 2022 but remains a leading cause of death Report

Sara HUSSEIN

A surprising improvement in air quality in South Asia in 2022 led to a drop in global pollution, with favorable weather a likely factor, a new report said Wednesday.

However, the region continues to breathe the most polluted air in the world, causing residents to lose more than 3.5 years of life expectancy on average, the annual Air Quality Life Index (AQLI) warned.

Globally, most countries either have no pollution standards or fail to meet the standards they have set, exposing their citizens to air quality that causes various health problems.

Air pollution in South Asia has been increasing annually for two decades, but satellite data for 2022 - the most recent year available - surprisingly showed an 18 percent decrease.

The decline was recorded in all countries except Sri Lanka, according to the Energy Policy Institute (EPIC) report at the University of Chicago.

‘While it is difficult to definitively determine what caused PM2.5 levels to fall across South Asia, it is safe to assume that favorable meteorological conditions may have played a role,’ the report, which refers to tiny particles that can penetrate deep into the body, said.

The widespread nature of the decline, along with above-average rainfall in the region in 2022, supports this theory.

‘Only time will tell if policy changes have an impact,’ the report added, warning that people in South Asia are still breathing air that is eight times more polluted than the World Health Organisation considers safe.

‘Continued observations, policy enforcement efforts, and monitoring the impact of policies will be critical to understanding and sustaining these reductions,’ the report said.

The decline in South Asia led to a nine percent drop in air pollution globally, while poor air quality increased elsewhere, including in the Middle East and North Africa, with concentrations up 13 percent year-on-year.

The report warned that a persistent lack of air quality data on the ground was hampering policy design and implementation.

‘Highly polluted countries that have little or no air quality data often fall into a vicious cycle where the paucity of data leads to little attention or policy investment in the problem, which in turn exacerbates the low demand for data,’ said Christa Hasenkopf, head of EPIC's Clean Air Programme.

Earlier this year, the center launched a USD 1.5 million fund to finance the installation of air quality monitors that provide open data worldwide.

Overall, relatively little money is spent on tackling air pollution, even though it has a huge impact on human health.

In some of the most polluted countries in Africa, for example, air pollution ‘poses a greater threat to life expectancy than HIV/AIDS, tropical diseases, malaria or water, sanitation and handwashing,’ the report states.

There are bright spots, however, including China's remarkably successful efforts to combat air pollution.

Measures have been taken, including limiting the number of cars in major cities, reducing the capacity of heavy industry, and banning new coal-fired power plants in certain regions.

Since 2013, China has reduced air pollution by 41 percent, met national standards, and increased the life expectancy of its citizens by an average of two years, according to AQLI.

However, even in China, air pollution levels are still more than five times above WHO guidelines, and the benefits of Beijing's measures are unevenly distributed.

Air quality remains poor in several major provinces and has even worsened in some prefectures since 2013.

sah/cwl