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Geert van der Linden
Vice-President for Knowledge Management and Sustainable Development
Asian Development Bank
Better Air Quality 2003 Workshop
Edsa Shangri-La Hotel
Mandaluyong City, Metro Manila, Philippines
17 December 2003
Honorable Secretary, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,
It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to Manila. My journey this morning has been a very short one from our headquarters just a few minutes' walk away. But many of you I know have come a long way to Manila, so close to Christmas, to discuss the topic of air quality in Asia. This I find very encouraging.
Why we care about air quality
Everyone who lives in Asia is familiar with, and greatly troubled by, air pollution. The polluted air we breathe is not just a nuisance it is a killer. According to recent WHO statistics, every year almost 500,000 people in Asia die prematurely because of the bad air they breathe. And inevitably it is the poor who are the least able to protect themselves from polluted air or to deal with its pernicious effects. The economic costs of air pollution are increasingly well documented. For many cities in Asia they run to hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
Why is ADB involved in air quality management
ADB's mission is easy to state: it is to fight poverty. But it is not easy to realize. It involves initiatives of many kinds, and in particular it involves initiatives to protect and improve the environment. For many years ADB has been concerned with the green environment. But in recent years we have been placing more and more attention on the brown environment. In this, air quality is a key component.
A good example of this is the project of the Philippine government to improve the air quality here in Metro Manila. This project deals with all aspects of air pollution and has received significant ADB financing. After initial delays this project is starting to show results: only unleaded gasoline is now for sale in Manila, the quality of diesel fuel sold in the city has improved, air quality is now better monitored, and measures are being taken to reduce emissions from both vehicles and factories.
There is a long way to go with this project, but we have seen enough here and in work in other cities in Asia to be convinced that better urban air quality can be managed effectively.
Positive trends in air quality management in Asia
We at ADB are not the only ones who take an active interest in air quality management. It is rapidly and rightly gaining the attention of those in government, civil society, the private sector, and the development community. And the large turn out at this workshop is evidence that air pollution and air quality management are of concern to all of you.
I would like to share, briefly, with you four positive trends that we observe here in Asia.
First, people are demanding cleaner air. They are becoming more aware of pollution and its consequences, and they have started to demand that governments take measures to protect public health. Here in the Philippines 5 million signatures were collected to force Congress to promulgate a Clean Air Act, which had been delayed for years. In Delhi, citizen action resulted in the replacement of all diesel vehicles with cleaner natural gas vehicles. We welcome these initiatives by ordinary citizens, and we also welcome awareness raising and lobbying by NGOs.
Second, there is a shift towards longer-term solutions. Air quality management activities in Asia were initially often ad hoc, short-term and mostly technical in nature. What we observe now is that countries and cities have started to put into place more comprehensive approaches, supported by enabling legislation and better institutions. As a result, air quality management may now focus on prevention rather than cure. New approaches to energy planning, transport planning and urban development should increasingly replace current approaches in which the emphasis is on reducing pollution coming from the tailpipe or the factory stack. This changed approach will have considerable implications for ADB's work in the transport and energy sectors. For instance, it could lead to a much larger engagement of ADB in improving public transport.
Third, the private sector is becoming part of the solution not part of the problem. It has traditionally been perceived as the polluter which needs to be controlled to ensure that its emissions are tolerable. It is encouraging to note that the US Office of Budget Management has concluded that investments in air quality management make good business sense. From 1992 to 2002 US government and private business spent some $20 billion in measures to reduce or prevent air pollution. This generated benefits estimated at $120-200 billion. This clearly shows that the private sector can and should be part of the solution. I am particularly pleased that a number of private sector organizations give direct financial support to the Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities. I am pleased too that a number of firms in Asia are now providing air quality management technologies and services.
Fourth, and this is the last trend that I want to share with you, is the growth in regional initiatives in air quality management here in Asia. This is a clear signal that regional and international organizations such as ASEAN and UNEP, as well as multilateral and bilateral development organizations, are taking a much greater interest in air quality issues. Three years ago, ADB, World Bank, and United States-Asia Environmental Partnership (a project of USAID) together with others helped to establish the Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities. We are proud of the success it has had in attracting attention and mobilizing resources. The information we have gathered shows us that air quality management is by no means a hopeless task and that it is possible, even within modest means, to improve city air quality.
These trends together with rapid developments in technology which can substantially reduce pollution from both stationary and mobile sources give us reason to be optimistic that air quality in Asia will improve in the years to come.
ADB's continued commitment
ADB will continue to strongly support AQM activities in Asia. It will do so through the policy dialogue it conducts with its member countries, through its lending and non-lending assistance, and through regional cooperation activities such as its support for the Clean Air Initiative.
Conclusion
It is nearly Christmas, and this is the time when Dickens' famous novel, A Christmas Carol, will once again be read, acted or screened all over the world. Nineteenth-century London was a fast-growing squalid, dirty city over which for many days each year hung a low cloud, a miasma, caused mostly by pollution from the burning of coal. Bronchial diseases were rife, and everyone dreaded the winter smogs. Twentieth century Londoners recognized the problems and tackled them. There has been no smog in London for 50 years and the city buildings are no longer blackened by soot. Dickens would not recognise the city about which he wrote so well.
Ladies and gentlemen, pollution can be tackled successfully and this workshop is a step on the road that leads to cities with air we can breathe without fear.
You have a daunting agenda in front of you, with fifteen sub-workshops with over 100 presentations. But you are doing important work, and I urge you to stay the course.