Mainstreaming Health Effects Evaluation into Air Quality Management

Planning in Latin America: The Case of Aburrá Valley

Juan J. Castillo, Juliana Klakamp, Sergio Sanchez

Introduction

Conclusions

Summary 1

• Multi-sectorial, multi-pollutant plan

(including criteria pollutant, black

carbon and GHG).

• Goal 2030: WHO Interim

Objective 2 for PM2.5

• Time frame: 2017-2030

• Strategies include: mobility, urban

planning, industrial sources,

others + crosscutting strategies.

The Metropolitan Area of Aburrá Valley

500,000

700,000

Designing an Air Quality Management Plan

3.7 million inhabitants within 10

municipalities (nucleus city:

Medellin).

2nd largest economy in

Colombia, most innovative city.

…and 2nd most polluted urban

area in the nation.

Population, motorization rates

& freight are rising, and

economic activities are

expanding.

Focusing on Health

Attributable deaths to Air Pollution in the Aburrá Valley (2014)

Building up informed decisions and stakeholder commitment

• Dissemination of results to the public, media and decision makers

to support plan approval and implementation.

• International workshop about health effects of air pollution.

• Inclusion of a comprehensive strategy to enhance health

response as a part of the Air Quality Management Plan.

• The metropolitan area joined Breathe Life Campaign as a part of

the plan.

Conclusions

Integrated Environmental Strategies In Action

Project scoping and

team buiding

Energy and emission modeling

Air quality modeling

Health impact assessment

Economic modeling

Ranking of measures

Decision making

Implement measures

Stakeholder

engagement

Expertise

development

Capacity

strengthening

Decision

building

• The Integrated Environmental Strategies approach enables to mainstream health considerations to identify,

evaluate and prioritize interventions for simultaneously addressing both air pollution and climate change.

• Health impact assessment establishes a strong foundation for collaboration between health, environment and

other sectors, as well as to overcome barriers for strategy implementation.

• Effective communication of health benefits of air pollution abatement is key to build decisions and public

support for high-impact interventions at the scale of the magnitude of challenges being faced by cities.

• With 80% of their residents living in cities, Latin American countries are

challenged by accelerated motorization rates, urban sprawl and increased fuel

consumption, associated to both air pollution and climate change.

• Comprehensive air quality management planning based on health

considerations has proven to be an effective instrument to articulate large

scale interventions to protect people from air pollution impacts. Regional

examples of success have been Mexico City and Santiago, among others.

• However, most Latin American cities still provide scarce consideration to

health impacts from air pollution on infrastructure and budget allocation

decisions.

• Clean Air Institute (CAI) works with interested parties using state-of-the art

tools and research to accelerate processes to abate air pollution.

• As a part of our work, CAI has collaborated with the Aburrá Valley (Medellin

Metropolitan Area) to prepare the Comprehensive Air Quality Management

Plan 2017-2030, officially adopted in late 2017.

• This experience is replicable to other cities in developing countries.

150 million

people exposed to

air pollution levels

exceeding WHO

guidelines in Latin

America

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PM

2.5

Em

issi

on

s (t

on

)

Tho

usa

nd

s

Meta Transporte Meta Industria BAU

Public Transport Share is Declining

1,700 deaths/year

$793 million (4% GDP)

Baseline

With Plan (2030)

437 deaths/year

$206 million

cleanairinstitute.org jcastillo@cleanairinstitute.org +1(202) 4645450 @CleanAirInst Clean.Air.Institute Clean Air Institute 1120 G St Suite 800 Washington DC. 20005

75% emission expected reduction as a result of the plan implementation

Acknowledgments The case study was developed under the auspices of the collaboration agreement between the Area

Metropolitana del Vallde de Aburrá and Clean Air Instute. Special thanks to the Universidad Pontificia

Bolivariana for its emissions and air quality modeling