I’m optimistic about tackling the pressing issue of bad air. It is doable to have mega-cities be mega-clean—as long as we join forces.
Air pollution is the world’s most serious threat to human health. Air pollution cuts average life expectancy of a global citizen by almost two years—more than tuberculosis, malaria, road injuries and HIV combined, according to the Air Quality Life Index. Particulate pollution is actually a bigger problem than smoking. And as more people move to cities, deaths from urban air pollution will increase substantially unless we take action.
By 2050, 70 percent of global citizens are expected to live in a city. Most of these mega-cities will be in Asia. Yet North America has its share of big cities with big-city problems. The State of the Air 2018 report by the American Lung Association shows that the number of Americans exposed to unhealthy levels of air pollution has increased to more than 130 million. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, or OECD, estimates that if we don’t take action, the number of premature deaths worldwide in 2060 will be 6 million to 9 million.
This trend will be unacceptable to citizens. Public protests against bad air are on the rise. I suspect it will reach a tipping point where no local government that wants to be re-elected can do so without a serious clean air plan.
There’s no one silver bullet, but there is an array of options for cities to reduce air pollution. They include better city planning with walkways, bike lanes and public infrastructure; better use of natural and renewable gas; use of electric cars and motorbikes; and promotion of shared driving. All solutions strengthen our joint effort to clean the air in cities and make them a great place to work, live and laugh.
That, for me, is air quality of life.
WHAT A WASTE OF MONEY, TOO!
The economic costs of air pollution are staggering. A report released by the OECD in 2016, The Economic Consequences of Outdoor Air Pollution, forecasts that air pollution could cost 1 percent of global gross domestic product—approximately $2.6 trillion annually—due to sick days and medical bills.
Our contribution as a natural gas industry is most impactful when we displace other fuels, such as coal, heavy fuels or diesel, and use gas in city power generation, gas in city heating, gas in small generators, gas for indoor cooking, and gas for heavyduty transportation.
Natural gas solutions in cities are plentiful. And we have the cities to prove it:
Air pollution is not a new problem. The Great Smog of London in 1952 killed 4,000 people in five days, and the United Kingdom passed the Clean Air Act in 1956 in response. Of course, 4,000 immediate deaths prompt more action than a slower impact. But these numbers are a drop in a bucket compared to what is ahead of us, if cities don’t take action now.
A Common Solution
What do cities like Bogota, Nairobi, Seoul, Madrid, New York City, Berlin, Krakow, Rotterdam, Dublin, Istanbul, Toronto and Beijing have in common? They all used natural gas as one of the solutions to cleaner air.
The International Gas Union has looked at big cities around the world to find clean air solutions in which natural gas plays an important role. For more, visit www.igu.org/promotes-clean-air.
Hansch van der Velden was until very recently the corporate communications director of Gasunie. He was also the secretary general of the Royal Dutch Gas Association and chair of the International Gas Union Committee on Marketing and Communications. He has now started his own consulting agency.
