Air respects no borders, nor does the pollution it carries. When crop residues are burned […]
Reflecting a major stepping-up of collective ambition to tackle soaring pollution in one of the most densely populated and severely polluted airsheds on Earth, key stakeholders from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan gathered in Bhutan on 26 and 27 June for a regional dialogue on air quality management.
The event produced an outcome text that for the first time accents the need for a regional working group of experts and scientists from government, academia, and concerned agencies to develop air quality management strategies, to assess and identify research gaps, and needs.
Stakeholders also emphasised the urgent need to scale up funding for clean air.
The event, a follow-up to a breakthrough event held in Kathmandu in 2022 that created the Kathmandu Roadmap for Improving Air Quality, brought together high-level policy-makers from both national and state/municipal governments across the Indo-Gangetic Plains and the Himalayan Foothills region (IGP-HF), a region that holds the world’s most polluted airsheds in the most densely populated region.
The outcome text, the Thimphu Outcome, published today, sets out seven common positions, representing a shared understanding and appreciation of issues among regional actors, donors, academics, and government agencies. It also recommends a set of 11 actions to improve air quality in the region which were agreed during the course of the meeting. They agreed to meet next year to structure and frame this regional cooperation to efficiently tackle the issue of air pollution in the region. A technical committee will be established by the end of this year to set out an appropriate structure.
Participants at the event, which is one of series of high-level Science-Policy Dialogues the Kathmandu-headquartered intergovernmental centre ICIMOD convenes in order to drive progress in priority policy areas, were drawn from ministries and/or departments of energy and natural resources, environment, forests and climate change, science, technology and environment, and pollution control boards in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, and Pakistan.
Donor agencies and other development partners including UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (UK FCDO), Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC), US Embassy Kathmandu, Clean Air Fund, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), South Asia Co-operative Environment Programme (SACEP), United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) - Forum for International Cooperation on Air Pollution (FICAP), and United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) also attended the event.
ICIMOD’s science-policy dialogue series are designed to provide a platform for the HKH countries to share common challenges, to collaborate on and accelerate the take-up of solutions and to develop coordinated plans and strategies and exchange knowledge, ideas and best practices to address such transboundary and regional issues and challenges.
At the Bhutan Air Quality Management Dialogue, which was jointly convened with World Bank, government representatives discussed policies, plans and tools they’ve designed and deployed to tackle air pollution in the IGP-HF region, such as Bangladesh’s national air quality management plan for Dhaka, and Pakistan’s penalty for polluters in Punjab province.
Representatives of the following organizations and agencies approved the outcome text:
World Bank; Clean Air Fund; British Embassy Kathmandu; Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation; Dalberg; United Nations Environment Programme; Asian Development Bank; US Embassy Nepal; kfw Germany; UNOPS.
Bangladesh’s Department of Environment and Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
Bhutan’s Department of Environment and Climate Change, Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources.
India’s Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Government of India; Central Pollution Control Board; Commission for Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Area; Department of Science, Technology and Environment, Government of Punjab; Department of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Government of Uttar Pradesh; West Bengal State Pollution Control Board.
Pakistan’s Ministry of Climate Change and Environmental Coordination, Government of Pakistan; Environment Protection and Climate Change Department, the Government of the Punjab; Planning and Development Department, the Government of the Punjab.
Nepal’s Ministry of Forest and Environment and the Department of Environment.