Breaking Records in 2010: Air Quality, Climate Change and Transport in Asia: A Year in Review

[Kaye]

**Apologies for cross-posting**

BREAKING RECORDS IN 2010: AIR QUALITY, CLIMATE CHANGE AND TRANSPORT IN
ASIA
A YEAR IN REVIEW

As part of CAI-Asia mission to promote better air quality and livable
cities, CAI-Asia conducted an annual review of main events relevant to
air quality, climate change and transport in Asia. The review, which
started on 2008 and initially focused on sustainable transport (http://
cleanairinitiative.org/portal/node/4029), has now expanded to include
air quality and climate events. It is an opportunity to look back and
understand where Asia focused in the past year and foresee the
emerging trends in Asia in the coming years.

The message for 2011 is clear. Policymakers need to understand that
sustainable city as such is an important development issue. It is
clear that a city can grow its economy while at the same time
preserving blue skies and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. There is
a need for this urgent transformation. Asian cities are set to
populate with 500 million Asians in the next decades. It is a huge
challenge, a huge responsibility and a huge opportunity.

READ THE FULL REPORT HERE: http://cleanairinitiative.org/portal/node/7045

The main highlights for the 2010 Year in Review are:

In last half a decade, climate change concerns started dominating
discussions on transport and air quality and this trend continued in
2010. While the newspapers and conferences across Asia highlighted the
term “low carbon”, many across Asia decided to own vehicles. Record-
high vehicles sales were observed in several Asian countries in 2010
as countries recorded robust economic recovery, greater stability but
deteriorating public transport accessibility and mobility. Air quality
across Asia remained a reason for big concern in year 2010 with latest
research indicating that 80% of global population lives in areas above
WHO guideline for PM2.5.

Year 2010 will also be remembered for initiatives taken during
“international events and games”. While athletes across Asia were
competing to break records, policy makers were driving massive funds
towards various initiatives. Governments utilized events like Shanghai
World EXPO, Delhi Commonwealth games and Guangzhou Asian games to
create long term infrastructure for air quality monitoring, public and
non motorized transport and vehicle movement. While, lessons learnt
from Beijing Olympics were utilized to make short drastic improvements
in cities like Shanghai, Guangzhou and New Delhi, traffic congestion
in Beijing however created a new record with a nine day long 100km
traffic jam.

Countries across Asia are plotting different plans for “fuel”. The
Indian government freed petrol from all pricing controls and thus
unleashed a craze for diesel which was kept under government control
and underpriced. While 13 big cities in India moved to Euro-4 fuel to
reduce the pollution, rest of India had to contend with Euro-3 fuel
and no action plan for future. Pakistan, Vietnam and Philippines
decided to finally act and discuss with various stakeholders to create
a roadmap for Euro-4 fuel with reduced sulfur content. While the
debate across Asia was on cleaner fuel, Sri Lanka decided to make
vehicles more accessible to people. It was a step back and a big
setback as it slashed duties on cars, among others, with immediate
effect in a bid to boost post-war economic activity.

As in the past few years, BRTS was the main driver for public
transport and new cities like Guangzhou and Bangkok launched new BRT
systems. Nearly 82 such systems are being planned or being initiated
in Asia. A concept which sprouted in Latin America is being truly
harvested in Asia. There is no need to celebrate yet. Surveys
conducted in 2010 have found the accessibility to such massive public
transport systems and even normal bus systems to be very poor.

We welcome your queries, feedback, or suggestions!