S Asian nations unite to combat air pollution from new platform

Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, and Pakistan have agreed to launch an open scientific-technical and financial platform to combat air pollution, as pollutants trapped in the common geographic area create similar air quality issues for populations across South Asia.

Under the World Bank's umbrella, technical experts and policymakers from these five countries are currently meeting in Kathmandu, Nepal, to launch the Kathmandu Roadmap in June 2025 policy framework on "Air Quality Management (AQM) in the Indo-Gangetic Plain and Himalayan Foothills (IGP-HF)."

The main objective of this meeting is to identify a structure to support regional cooperation on AQM in the IGP-HF. It is essential to clearly define and detail this structure in terms of both governance and technical content. This will then be finalised at the 3rd Science Policy and Finance Dialogue (SPFD) planned for June 2025, Md. Ziaul Haque, Director of Air Quality at the Department of Environment, Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change, told this correspondent from Kathmandu over the phone on Thursday.

"This meeting is organised by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and the Himalayan Resilience Enabling Action Programme (HI-REAP), in collaboration with the World Bank. However, this event is the first TC meeting to structure this regional cooperation to efficiently tackle the issue of air pollution in the region," Ziaul Haque stated.

"Bangladesh and a few other South Asian countries have adopted policies to help improve air quality. But along with taking action at the district and country level, it is also urgent that coordinated transboundary actions are taken with neighbouring countries. The current policy measures focusing on power plants, large factories, and transportation will only be partially successful in reducing PM2.5 concentrations across South Asia, even if fully implemented," he added.

According to a World Bank report, several cities in this region are often featured among the world's top ten most polluted cities. High levels of air pollution seriously affect the health of millions of people, particularly women, children, and the elderly; among these groups, the poor are the most vulnerable. Air pollution also leads to reduced economic productivity, with welfare costs equivalent to around 10 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product.

In many parts of the region, both urban and rural, air pollution has reached alarming levels. While governments in the IGP-HF region, both at the national and sub-national levels, are taking actions to tackle air pollution, more needs to be done urgently on air quality management planning and implementation in collaboration with South Asian countries.

Enhancing transboundary coordination and cooperation on air pollution is critical, as it can support the adoption of common measures leading to cheaper, quicker, and more significant air pollution reductions, Ziaul Haque noted.

"To combat transboundary air pollution, four South Asian countries - Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan - agreed to reduce national annual average PM2.5 levels to 35 micrograms per cubic meter by 2030. The World Bank and the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development facilitated the meeting in 2022 in Nepal.