Olga Algayerova

Opinion | Global fight against air pollution is stronger than ever, 40 years after groundbreaking UN convention

With new legally binding emission commitments and pollutant limits, the UNECE Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution is providing fresh inspiration to countries and organisations in the global fight for clean air

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A student in Thailand waits to be picked up after classes were cancelled in Bangkok due to bad air last January. More international cooperation is needed to respond to people’s demand for clean air for themselves and their children. Photo: Reuters

Olga Algayerova

Published: 2:00pm, 9 Dec 2019Updated: 2:42pm, 9 Dec 2019

The world is waking up, coughing and wheezing, to the damage done by dirty air. The signing of the C40 Clean Air Cities Declaration in October by the mayors of Delhi, Bangalore, Jakarta, Quezon City, Seoul, Sydney and Tokyo and 28 other cities across the globe is testament to the growing profile of this critical policy and human rights issue.

Many national governments, too, are devising strengthened measures to tackle air pollution. The decision to close a quarter of South Korea’s coal-fired power plants this winter to address the disaster of fine dust pollution, and the recent school closures in India due to toxic haze, are among the latest emergency measures being taken.

But while leadership and remedial actions at the city and national levels are crucial to tackling toxic air, these are not enough. Air pollutants do not stop at borders and can travel thousands of kilometres, meaning that the greatest efforts of a city or country working alone can only achieve so much.

International cooperation is therefore critical to effectively address a crisis that claims a staggering 7 million lives worldwide every year, threatens our ecosystems and contributes to the climate emergency. Or, if money talks louder, consider the staggering costs of air pollution-related premature deaths as a share of countries’ gross domestic products: 8.4 per cent in China, 11.6 per cent in India, 3.5 per cent in Indonesia, 4.6 per cent in Japan, 3.8 per cent in South Korea.

Today, as multilateralism comes under criticism, we can look to a quietly triumphant symbol of regional cooperation to help illuminate our path through the smog.

When scientists in the 1960s first found that air pollutants, often travelling thousands of kilometres, were behind the acid rain destroying forests, causing fish loss in lakes and putting entire ecosystems at risk in the northern hemisphere, they would never have dreamt of an international agreement to cut harmful emissions.