Managing Urban Air Quality:

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Managing Urban Air Quality

• Questions for Policy Appraisal

The World Bank 14 May 2002
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Asking the Right Questions

• Questions posed can channel policy in a specific
  direction
• By limiting options for consideration from the
  outset
• By implicitly assuming a policy response as being
  the best
• Examples
• What is the contribution of geological matter to
  SPM?
• Control of road dust
• What are the surest technical options for
  minimizing particulate emissions from heavy duty
  diesels?
• Advanced exhaust control or alternative fuels

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Question 1Is Outdoor Air Pollution Important?

• Is the impact of outdoor air pollution on public
  health and lost productivity considerable
  compared to other threats
• Lack of access to safe drinking water
• Lack of adequate primary health care
• Malnutrition
• Extensive use of dirty fuels in households
• Yes pursue mitigation policies in urban air
  pollution
• No look for incremental policy opportunities in
• individual sectors

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Incremental Opportunities

• If damage from other sources (lack of clean
  water, etc.) far exceeds damage from urban air
  pollution, then
• It is not cost-effective to mount large and
  expensive government programs to combat urban air
  pollution
• But there are many cases where, at small
  incremental cost, extending sector policies can
  improve urban air quality
• Example road widening in Hyderabad where the
  entire road width is paved (no unpaved shoulders)

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Question 2Which Pollutants Should We Care About?

• Pollutants should be ranked according to
  toxicity, ambient concentrations and exposure.
• Fine particulate matter is the pollutant of
  concern in India.
• A common mistake is to rank on the basis of
  emissions in weight based on an emissions
  inventory.
• Emission factors are uncertain or not available.
• Toxicity is not taken into account.
• Emissions in weight are not directly proportional
  to ambient concentrations or exposure.

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Misuse of Emissions Inventory

• CO dominates total emissions in weight.
• CO is primarily from gasoline vehicles, and
  transport is identified as the culprit.
• Once transport is identified as the main
  contributor, the focus shifts to black smoke.
• Diesel vehicles are targeted as the highest
  polluter, although the technical basis was CO
  from gasoline vehicles.

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Question 3 What Is Causing Air Pollution?

• Need to identify sources contributing the most to
  the general populations exposure to fine
  particulate air pollution.
• Large industrial plants.
• Small and medium size industries, diesel
  generators.
• Household consumption of solid fuels (biomass).
• Vehicular emissions.
• Leaf and informal refuse burning.
• Re-suspension of road-dust.
• Background and migration from other areas.

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How Much Do We Know About Sources of Particulate
Pollution?

• Little information on background particulate
  concentrations ? if background level is high,
  controlling human activities will be less
  effective.
• Measured data have large uncertainties ?
  difficult to draw conclusions (e.g., correlation
  between NO2 and PM10 to judge traffic
  contribution).
• Essentially no carbon analysis of particles.
• Very few quantitative source apportionment
  studies.
• ? Not much is known about relative importance of
  different sources.

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Observations From Other Countries

• Mexico city three-fold PM10 variations, with
  fugitive dust accounting for the differences. 50
  of PM10, but only 15 of PM2.5, is geological.
• UK road traffic contributes 25 of primary PM10
  emissions, but 60 of PM0.1. Good correlation
  between NOx and PM10.
• USA even in California, gasoline cars can emit
  as much as 1.5 g pm/km. A study in Colorado found
  that gasoline PM emissions were grossly
  under-estimated.

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Lessons for India

• Size of particles measured and examined drives
  policy.
• If PM10, difficult to lower if geological
  contribution is substantial.
• If sub-micron, efficient combustion processes
  such as motor exhaust will increase in
  importance.
• Re-examine emission factors.
• Poor correlation between NO2 and PM10 in Delhi in
  one study, but confirm data quality.
• Need to quantify contributions from less studied
  sources.
• Chemical (especially carbon) analysis and
  finger-printing.
• Generating emission factors more suitable to
  India.

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Question 4What Activities Do the Most Damage?

• For the sources identified as significant
  contributors to the populations exposure to
  small particles, which activities do the most
  damage?
• Examples
• Which vehicle and fuel combination in the
  transport sector?
• Which fuel and process combination in cottage
  industries?

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Question 5What Policy Instruments Should Be
Used?

• Guiding principles.
• Recognize economic and financial constraints and
  incentives, and work with, rather than against,
  economic incentives as much as possible.
• Better to have lax standards that are strictly
  enforced, than strict standards that are not
  enforced for the most part.
• Different sectors have objectives that are not
  necessarily compatible?recognize that there are
  trade-offs.

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Considerations for Ranking Priorities

• Compatibility with other sector objectives
• Do they go against, or reinforce, other sector
  objectives?
• Cost of implementation
• Which measures would be the most cost-effective
  (Rs / population exposure reduced)?
• Ease of enforcement
• How difficult would it be to carry out the
  proposed measures or to enforce them?
• Political feasibility
• Are there strong vested interest groups that
  would oppose the proposed measures vigorously?

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Policy Options

• Economic (differentiated) taxes, subsidies,
  pricing (congestion, parking)
• Administrative emission, energy efficiency and
  fuel quality standards, restrictions on operation
  (factories, vehicles, parking), protection of
  non-polluting activities (NMT)
• Technological fuel or technology mandates,
  traffic management

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Linkages With Other Sectors

• Transport urban transport policy
• Municipal government municipal solid waste
  management, policy towards slums
• Welfare employment opportunities for the urban
  poor
• Urban planning zoning, densification
• Fiscal tax policy
• Energy supply and demand of oil and gas, power

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Which Pollutants Cause the Most Damage?
Is the impact of outdoor air pollution serious
compared to the impacts from other sources?
Fine PM
Does sector X contribute significantly to fine PM?
Which activities contribute significantly to fine
PM?
Which policy instruments will minimize
distortions and achieve results cost-effectively?