Tackling air pollution

LAHORE: Air pollution shortens the average life expectancy in Pakistan by 4.3 years, relative to what it would have been if the WHO guideline on air pollution was met. This was highlighted in a recent report by the World Bank.

Climate change has emerged as a major issue around the world. The change was triggered by pollution caused by various factors in different countries. Pakistan has a share of only 1.0 per cent in global pollution. Yet damage from air pollution in Pakistan is estimated to impose an additional loss of 6.5 per cent of the GDP per year.

The cost required to address water and soil pollution is high. But air pollution could be controlled with effective administrative steps. The problems are the same in all provinces. Industrial and vehicular emissions are among the main sources of air pollution. Industrial emission monitoring is being carried out by the Environmental Protection Agency Punjab, whereas vehicular monitoring is being carried out by the transport department through a public-private partnership. Other provinces have their own institutions.

In the highly urbanized cities, especially Lahore, Karachi, and Peshawar, more than one million citizens are at an increased mortality risk from air pollution. Although Pakistan is one of the few countries that has a dedicated climate change ministry, this ministry has had limited influence on outcomes so far, primarily because of capacity and resource constraints.

Devolution has the potential to enhance the provincial and local ownership of climate policies and actions in Pakistan. However, the process of devolution is still a work in progress.Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Green Growth Initiative and Punjab’s Green Development Programme provide compelling examples. Both programmes include some measure of alignment between provincial and national policies and with the private sector.

Air quality is exacerbated by adulterated fuel, lack of emission control devices such as catalytic converters/diesel particulate filters, low-efficiency engines, and poorly maintained vehicle fleets, and traffic congestion on major roads of urban centres. There is a need to increase counters for the issuance/renewal of fitness certificates/route permits and deploy more teams for checking vehicles plying on roads without fitness certificates and route permits. Strict action on smoke emitting vehicles and mills would sufficiently improve air quality. Tackling corruption is required to ensure that fitness certificates are issued to fit public vehicles only.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of Punjab conducted one-day ambient air quality monitoring in nine divisional headquarters (HQs) during August 17-30, 2023. The report revealed that all divisional HQs had PM2.5 concentrations exceeding the PEQS value. Air quality monitoring stations (AQMS) in Lahore recorded the highest AQI-PM2.5 value in January, with the lowest value observed in September.

Lahore accounts for 27.18 per cent of the registered vehicles in the province. About 67 per cent of the public service vehicles tested during December 18, 2023 to January 1, 2023 were declared road worthy.

Urban transport presents a significant opportunity for climate mitigation, which could help reduce air pollution. The transport sector represents about 23 per cent of the country’s total GHG emissions, 57 per cent of which is urban. Passenger transport emissions in Pakistan are currently low compared to global averages, but this is rapidly starting to shift with the increased use of private, single-owner cars and motorcycles in cities.

Passenger transport is responsible for nearly 68 per cent of transport emissions because less carbon-efficient passenger modes such as private vehicles are displacing more efficient modes like public transport.