Linking air quality management to climate change mitigation Calling for clean air efforts to simultaneously achieve climate, health and sustainable development goals.
Event details
Air pollutants and greenhouse gases are often emitted from the same sources, such as coal-fired power plants and diesel-fueled vehicles. Fine particles are the most damaging air pollutants to health responsible for more than 90% of approximately 7 million premature deaths per year caused by air pollution.
Methane is a precursor of ground-level ozone and is 80 times more potent at warming the planet than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. Exposure to ozone causes some 1 million premature deaths every year. Furthermore, some components of fine particles, such as black carbon, are also powerful short-lived climate pollutants. Reducing fine particles therefore helps to achieve local benefits of improving air quality and health, and global benefits of climate change mitigation. These linkages between air pollution and climate pollutants call for integrated approaches to air quality management and climate change mitigation to ensure that global benefits of air quality management are realized, and at the same time, climate change mitigation choices do not result in increased local air pollution and harm to health.
The main objective of this event is to call for catalyzing clean air efforts around the world to simultaneously achieve climate, health and sustainable development goals.
This event is being organized jointly by the World Bank, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Environmental Defense Fund and World Resources Institute. It runs over two sessions: Wednesday 10 November 7:30–10:30 EST and Thursday 11 November 7:30–10:30 EST.
SEI’s Eleni Michalopoulou is one of the speakers in the second session (Thursday) and will address the issue of supporting the private sector in reducing short lived climate pollutants.
Join the session via Zoom from 12.00pm
Agenda for Day 2 – Thursday 11 November
7:00 – 7:30 Join the session
7:30 – 9:00 Session 2. Regional priorities on air pollution for achieving health and climate benefits and best practices at the national level
presentations followed by Q & A
Chair: Jessica Seddon, Global Lead for Air Quality at World Resources Institute
- Blue Skies, Blue Seas in the Middle East and North Africa Region – Martin Heger, Senior Environmental Economist in the Environment, Natural Resources and Blue Economy Global Practice, World Bank
Questions and answers - Actions on air quality in Latin America and the Caribbean – Jordi Pon, Regional Coordinator for Chemicals, Waste and Air Quality, Latin America and the Caribbean Office, UNEP
Questions and answers - Supporting the private sector in achieving short lived climate pollutants (SLCP reduction) – Eleni Michalopoulou, Research Associate, SEI York
Questions and answers
Coffee break
9:00 – 9.10 Panel 2. Maximizing synergies between air quality management and climate change mitigation actions
conversation based on a series of questions panelists will be invited to respond
Chair: Sergio Sánchez, Senior Policy Director, Global Clean Air Initiative, Environmental Defense Fund
- Key recommendations to mainstream clean air into finance policies and national priorities – Rodolfo Lacy. Director for the Environment. Directorate, OECD
- The C40 Strategy for Clean Air and Climate – Iyad Kheirbek, Director, Air Quality Program – C40 Cities
- The Clean Air Catalyst Program – Christina P. Wong, Urban Sustainability Advisor | Green Cities | USAID, and Michael Doust, Director, Urban Efficiency & Climate, WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities
- Integrated approaches to air quality management and climate change mitigation – Grzegorz Peszko, Lead Economist, Environment, Natural Resources and Blue Economy Global Practice, World Bank
- Best practices to achieve multiple benefits from an integrated clean air and climate approach – Marcelo Mena, Chile’s Former Minister of Environment and World Bank consultant
- Questions and answers
- Wrap up and closing – Rodolfo Lacy, Director of the Environment Directorate, OECD
About the speaker
Eleni Michalopoulou (Research Associate at Stockholm Environment Institute)
Eleni joined SEI’s York Centre in 2020 as a member of the Air Pollution group where she contributes to Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) projects and the Supporting National Action and Planning (SNAP) on Short-Lived Climate Pollutants (SLCPs) initiative.