Human health is crucial for the planet’s future

AIR quality is not an abstract environmental statistic. From smog hanging over cities to smoke inside the home, air pollution poses a major threat to health and climate.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 4.2 million deaths worldwide are annually caused by ambient or outdoor air pollution. The pollution sources include power generation, industrial processes, motor vehicles, agriculture and waste incineration.

Around 2.6 billion people are exposed to dangerous levels of household air pollution due to use of open fires or stoves — fueled by kerosene, biomass and coal — for cooking and heating. The combined effects of ambient air pollution and household air pollution is associated with 7 million premature deaths per year.

In the Philippines, about 45 deaths for every 100,000 people are attributed to air pollution. The safe level for PM2.5 is 10 micrograms per cubic meter of air in a year but the recorded annual average in the Philippines is 17.6 micrograms or 3.1 times above the WHO air quality guideline. The number one source of this pollution are motor vehicles, which in 2019 were registered at 4.7 million units nationwide.

Air quality and climate change have a direct relationship because the factors that cause air pollution, such as the combustion of fossil fuels, are also sources of high carbon emissions. We are, therefore, supporting both climate and health goals when we implement policies and measures that improve air quality.

In 1999, the Philippines enacted Republic Act (RA) 8749, otherwise known as the “Clean Air Act,” which provides the policy framework for the country’s air quality management program. The law seeks to uphold the right of every Filipino to clean and quality air by reducing air pollution from stationary and mobile sources.

It adheres to the constitutional provision that grants the Filipino the right to “a balanced and healthful ecology in accord with the rhythm and harmony of nature.” It encourages cooperation and self-regulation and emphasizes compliance and accountability to environmental rules and regulations.

It provides a solid foundation for other legislative measures on environmental protection and climate change adaptation/mitigation. It heavily complements RA 9513 or the “Renewable Energy Act of 2008” in pursuing more affordable and cleaner sources of energy as well as the Green Jobs Act, a world first, in transitioning our industrial sectors toward a low-carbon and green economy.

We must pursue this pathway to achieve the goal of becoming climate-resilient. Our vulnerability and resilience as a nation has armed us to become a strong voice and lead other highly vulnerable countries in climate negotiations. When everyone else found it adequate to set the global warming limit at 2 degrees Celsius, we pushed it even further to 1.5 degrees.

Our Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), as part of our commitment to the Paris Agreement, conveys the country’s strong commitment to climate action. The NDC is conditioned on the availability of financial resources to pursue technology development and transfer and capacity building and strategies in our national development plans also have to be re-calibrated to achieve mitigation commitments.

The 2017-2022 Philippine Development Plan, in particular, has embedded various mitigation strategies in the energy, transport and industry sectors, which include:

– promotion of green technology innovations;

– institution of appropriate incentives that will intensify the use of more energy=efficient technologies in both the public and private sectors;

– further development and use of renewable energy in line with the provisions of the Renewable Energy Act of 2008;

– promotion of climate-smart infrastructure and designs as prescribed by the Green Building Code of the Department of Public Works and Highways;

– promotion of low-carbon, energy-efficient and environment-friendly urban transport systems; and

– promotion of sustainable consumption and production through the use of practices and technologies that will help attain economic goals and environmental standards toward achieving a low-carbon economy.

Mitigation measures also include the reduction of black carbon from diesel-fed vehicles, the municipal solid waste sector, household cooking and domestic heating, oil and natural gas production and agriculture.

We know that understanding how to calculate and keep track of emissions is key to achieving our mitigation goals. We must not make the situation worse, however, by ignoring the health risks and economic costs of worsening air pollution. Producing clean energy from wind, water and other renewable power sources must be the priority of the government because these will lessen our dependence on so-called dirty energy like coal and gas.

We are still far from finishing the job in terms of securing a healthier future for all. We must consider our actions today as legacy acts because however acute the present ecological and social crisis is, the opportunity to leave behind the polluting, destructive and inequitable past is growing just as fast.

Protecting our environment is protecting human health. In light of the new realities and challenges due to a warming planet, we must do more for the safety and future of our people, country and planet.

The author is the executive director of the Young Environmental Forum and a nonresident fellow of the Stratbase ADR Institute. He completed his climate change and development course at the University of East Anglia and an executive program on sustainability leadership at Yale University. You can email him at ludwig.federigan@ gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter at @WiggyFederigan.