Posts in the 'Air Quality' category
Low-Emission Zones: A Blueprint for Delhi's Urban Transformation
Low-Emission Zones: A Blueprint for Delhi’s Urban Transformation
India’s urban centers are grappling with a severe air pollution crisis that poses a significant threat to public health and urban livability. Studies suggest that each year, Delhi records approximately 12,000 air pollution-related deaths, accounting for 11.5% of its total fatalities. Despite ...
4 Graphics Explain Los Angeles’ Rare and Devastating January Fires
4 Graphics Explain Los Angeles’ Rare and Devastating January Fires
Wildfires have been rapidly spreading across the Los Angeles area since Jan. 7, displacing upwards of 175,000 people and claiming at least five lives as of Jan. 9. The Palisades fire — the first to erupt and the biggest blaze ...
What Happens When Extreme Heat and Air Pollution Collide
What Happens When Extreme Heat and Air Pollution Collide
On July 22, the world experienced its hottest day in recorded history. The global average temperature reached 17.2 degrees C (62.9 degrees F), prompting UN Secretary-General António Guterres to issue a global call to action on extreme heat. The problem of extreme ...
6 Takeaways From Indore’s New Air Quality Monitoring Stations
6 Takeaways From Indore’s New Air Quality Monitoring Stations
Research around the world shows that pollution levels can vary enormously within the same city and even within the same neighborhood. Local monitoring data can thus prove essential to understanding air pollution sources, how they affect different communities and groups, ...
Grassroots Action Against Polluted Skies: How Jakarta's Urban Villages Tackle Air Pollution 
Grassroots Action Against Polluted Skies: How Jakarta’s Urban Villages Tackle Air Pollution 
On a Sunday afternoon in September 2023, a group of about 30 individuals, including a group of mostly female neighbors from nine kampungs (a common term for “urban villages” or “informal settlements” across multiple languages and nations in Southeast Asia) ...
Zero-Emission Zones Are Helping Some Cities Fight Pollution
Zero-Emission Zones Are Helping Some Cities Fight Pollution
With growing urban populations and increases in cars, trucks and buses, cities are poised to experience more harmful pollution threatening people’s health and livelihoods. But some cities around the world are turning to an emerging solution called zero-emission zones (ZEZs). These are designated ...
How Data and Integrated Planning Approaches Can Help Cities Fight Air Pollution 
How Data and Integrated Planning Approaches Can Help Cities Fight Air Pollution 
In Bogotá, Colombia, over 3,000 people die prematurely each year due to exposure to air pollution—namely from PM2.5, a fine particulate matter produced by vehicle exhaust, burning and industrial outputs. Bogotá is not alone: According to 2021 data, of 174 ...
Delhi’s Air Quality Needs Data-Driven Action
Delhi’s Air Quality Needs Data-Driven Action
The issue of Delhi’s poor air quality resurfaces periodically in public consciousness. It garners attention on social media, in newspapers and in scientific studies, largely during winter months. During this period, Delhi’s air quality index drops from “poor” to “severe” ...
Southeast Asian Cities Have Some of the Most Polluted Air in the World. El Niño Is Making it Worse
Southeast Asian Cities Have Some of the Most Polluted Air in the World. El Niño Is Making it Worse
Residents of Jakarta, Indonesia woke up on August 31, 2023, to a thick blanket of haze and news that their city was again ranked the most polluted in the world — one of many times during the last several months when air quality became ...
Nairobi Highlights Air Quality During Africa Climate Week
Nairobi Highlights Air Quality During Africa Climate Week
Against the backdrop of the Africa Climate Summit and Africa Climate Week, Nairobi hosted the UN Environment Programme’s fourth annual International Clean Air Day for blue skies event with Nairobi City County Governor, Sakaja Johnson, on September 7th, 2023. This ...
Clearing the Air: Why Low-Carbon Transportation is Critical for Cities 
Clearing the Air: Why Low-Carbon Transportation is Critical for Cities 
You start the day frustrated, your alarm clock ringing 30 minutes earlier than usual to try to beat the thousands of other morning commuters out the door. Battling bottlenecks has become your daily drill, from the side road shortcuts to ...
Poor Air Quality Isn’t the Only Way Wildfires Affect Cities
Poor Air Quality Isn’t the Only Way Wildfires Affect Cities
Thousands of people in Quebec, Canada evacuated their homes this month due to raging wildfires. More than 400 miles away, New York City experienced its worst air quality in history, and briefly had the worst air quality of any city in the ...
Clean Indore Making Strides for Clean Air
Clean Indore Making Strides for Clean Air
Indore is known as India’s cleanest city, having secured the title seven years in a row in Swachh Bharat National Cleanliness Surveys, and it is now determined to clean its air too. On February 15, the “Clean Air, Clean Indore” ...
Putting Women at the Center of Clean Air Action
Putting Women at the Center of Clean Air Action
A key objective of the Clean Air Catalyst is to exchange knowledge, build trust and foster opportunities to elevate the voices of those most impacted by air pollution, particularly women and low-income communities. Funded by the U.S. Agency for International ...
Zero-Emission Delivery Zones: A New Way to Cut Traffic, Air Pollution and Greenhouse Gases
Zero-Emission Delivery Zones: A New Way to Cut Traffic, Air Pollution and Greenhouse Gases
Urban freight and delivery services boomed during the COVID-19 pandemic as consumers switched to online shopping when businesses were forced to close. The surge in online market activity that began in 2020 builds on a decade of steady growth related to the ...
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