Breathe! The cities working together on air pollution and climate change

“Air pollution is the silent killer, first and foremost: 8.1 million people a year are dying because of air pollution-related health risks.”

Jaime Pumarejo, Executive Director of Breathe Cities, states plainly how air pollution is an urgent problem for cities globally.

Speaking on the World Economic Forum's podcast, Radio Davos, he explains how cities around the world - including Jakarta, Bangkok, Mexico, Rio de Janeiro, Paris, Warsaw, and Sofia - are sharing expertise and experience in reducing air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

The former city mayor from Colombia says city residents are driving policies to improve the air they breathe. And that local action is also helping a global problem - by cutting the emissions that cause climate change.

Here are some of the highlights of the Radio Davos interview.

Jaime Pumarejo: [Breathe Cities is] trying to get a good marriage between what can be replicated in places, for example like Nairobi or Accra or Johannesburg, with Paris.

And a lot of people would think not a lot. But yes, there is a lot in terms of data. So how we collect data and how we can learn from [it] ...

But also empowering communities to have wearable sensors that they can give to their children. For example, they'll have a football match and they can be wearing a wearable sensor and then they can help upload this into our data networks and say, this is what's going on in the most underprivileged parts of Johannesburg or in Rio de Janeiro.

So there is a sense of a lot of data that is networked that we can learn from.

Jaime Pumarejo: Air pollution is a place where we can all meet because air pollution is the silent killer first and foremost: 8.1 million people a year are dying because of air pollution-related health risks. It is the second biggest health risk after coronary risk.

So it is a health factor. But also it's something that relates to your daily life and that we can change [at] a local level.

When we talk about climate change, it feels like this invisible monster that we can't do enough of, even though we try. But if we tackle it as an air pollution problem, then we can say, if I change my transportation habits, I can make a difference. If I change my heating habits, I can make a difference. If I ask my government to better the transportation matrix or the energy matrix, that will make a difference and I will breathe cleaner air.

If we can do that, there's a direct correlation between that and greenhouse gas emissions, so that means I'm also taking part.

Jaime Pumarejo: In the formative years, in the youngest years of our children, they are most exposed to air pollution.

Even if you're running a marathon, since you are inflamated, since you are using more of your lung capacity, you are more vulnerable to air pollution than you think. So even if you are one of the healthiest people in your street or block, you have the most propensity to health issues related to air pollution if you constantly exercise, if you actually are out there getting out and about.

So I would encourage you to learn more about it and to ask your local government to care about this and hopefully start tackling this…

I think we can make a difference. And I think people are waking up to that. And there are simple things that we can do. Try and use active mobility or always think about the way that we affect air pollution and greenhouse gases.

I think that there is a way forward. I think that the challenge given to the world right now is, how do we continue to give quality of life to the people that don't have it? How do we continue to industrialise countries that are below the poverty threshold but do so in a way that is sustainable with the environment?

We need to change the way we think about economic development and this is an exciting time to be alive and this is a big challenge to humanity. But I think we will make it.

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