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For inquiries contact:
Beth Elliott: beth.elliott@wri.org or Daniel Ibanez: daniel.ibanez@wri.org
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For inquiries contact:
Beth Elliott: beth.elliott@wri.org or Daniel Ibanez: daniel.ibanez@wri.org
Anuradha Shukla, age 29, no longer needs to face the common difficulties of using public transportation to travel approximately 15 kilometers from her residence in Indore to her office in Vijay Nagar.
The Clean Air Catalyst Indore pilot was featured at a state-level workshop held last week by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board (MPPCB) under the National Clean Air Program (NCAP). The goals of the workshop, held in Indore, were to take stock of the current state of air quality mitigation activities underway in Madhya Pradesh’s largest cities and to enable the sharing of policy strategies to expedite progress. Key dignitaries present include Gulshan Bamra, the Principal Secretary of the Environment Department, who chaired the workshop, and Dr. Prashant Gargava, Director of NCAP.
In December 2023, Clean Air Catalyst organized a workshop in Indore focused on women’s empowerment and training as clean air advocates. At the workshop, the Catalyst team caught up with Anupa Gokhale, program director at Pahal Jan Sahayog Vikas Sansthan, a community NGO in Indore, to hear her insights on strategies for empowering women and girls in the fight against air pollution.
To realize gender equality in their cities, governments need to have the necessary gender information and data to inform equitable policy design, but many governments lack this crucial gender data. To help fill this data gap, the Clean Air Catalyst Nairobi team is leading a gender-responsive emission inventory (EI).
Indore is on a transformative journey to clean up its air, and women are at the forefront of this transformation. In a workshop held last December, the Clean Air Catalyst Indore team aimed to develop a comprehensive understanding of the disproportionate impacts of air pollution on women and other vulnerable communities and empower them as clean air champions.
On a Sunday afternoon last September, a group of about 30 individuals, including a group of mostly female neighbors from 9 kampungs (urban villages) in the greater Jakarta area, joined community activists, NGO representatives focused on serving the urban poor, and air pollution experts to participate in a Learning Circle organized by Clean Air Catalyst, a USAID-funded project led by WRI Indonesia. The workshop consisted of two days of lessons about the importance of air quality and monitoring, and a day of field visits to four kampungs.
In December, Clean Air Catalyst’s Indore team organized a gender empowerment and training workshop titled "Women in Clean Air." The goal of the workshop was to bring together women and air quality experts from across government, civil society, and the private sector to highlight the ways that women and girls are uniquely impacted by air quality and to generate ideas for how proposed policy solutions can better combat gender disparities in air pollution exposure.
An in-depth interview with Indore Mayor Pushyamitra Bhargav about the city’s ongoing work to combat air pollution with Clean Air Catalyt’s Sudhir Gore.
To commemorate 16 days of activism this year the Clean Air Catalyst partnered with Vital Strategies, Nairobi City County Government, Uraia Trust and GROOTS-Kenya to host the Women’s Dialogue Conference.
WRI Indonesia through the Clean Air Catalyst collaborates with local partners to address air pollution sources, notably transportation. The Catalyst led a Learning Circle workshop, combining Women Empowerment Workshops and Gender Equality Training to engage diverse stakeholders, fostering understanding and advocacy.
Indore Mayor Pushyamitra Bhargav is scheduled to visit Dubai on November 30 to take part in the World Climate Action Summit, with the esteemed presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
During the days of Diwali, there is much discussion about the pollution caused by fireworks, but there are a few rare individuals who ardently contribute at a personal level to fight against air pollution. Meet some of these clean air champions.
Against the backdrop of the Africa Union Climate Action Summit and Africa Climate Week, Nairobi hosted the UN Environment Programme’s fourth annual International Clean Air Day for blue skies event with H.E. Governor Sakaja Johnson on September 7th, 2023. This year’s theme, “#Together for Clean Air” (in Swahili, #PamojaKwaHewaSafi), focused on the need for strong partnerships, increased investment and shared responsibility to overcome air pollution.
In a recent interview with Ms. Harshika Singh, Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC)’s Commissioner, Sudhir Gore, Clean Air Catalyst’s Lead Communication Consultant, delved into the current air quality situation in Indore and the city's ambitious plans to become a model of clean air and sustainable urban development.
On a hot Friday midmorning, Mary Muthoni pulls in at a Roysambu roadside garage in Nairobi’s Kasarani in a red Nissan Juke. She wants the vehicle’s catalytic converter removed.
Air pollution spikes in the months of June, July and August are a regular feature of life in Jakarta, occurring annually with the onset of the dry season, following monsoonal patterns. This is when a lack of moisture in the atmosphere and other meteorological conditions combine with high emissions, mostly from the transport and industry sectors, to produce dangerously high levels of pollution. This year, El Niño and ever-rising human emissions have created an especially dangerous spike in pollution.
More data are needed to make informed decisions about the many social, economic, and environmental challenges we face, including the fact that 99% of the world’s population is breathing unhealthy air. As Clean Air Catalyst develops and advances solutions toward cleaner air in Indore, Jakarta and Nairobi, data plays a key role. The local teams in these cities synthesize existing data with new data, analyze the data and integrate the findings with other scientific evidence and qualitative information to create a more complete understanding of who is being impacted by air pollution.
Clean Air Catalyst (Catalyst) operates under the theory that when people understand how pollution impacts them and their loved ones and what sources of pollution are affecting the air they breathe, they will have greater motivation to demand clean air and greater expertise to create solutions. Expanding air quality monitoring and connecting it to the sources and impacts of air pollution is a key component of the Catalyst’s data-to-action approach for Indore, India, Jakarta, Indonesia and Nairobi, Kenya, as explained below:
After a 6-year unbeaten run as India's cleanest city in terms of urban sanitation, Indore has attained a noteworthy milestone by achieving success in another national cleanliness survey. In the Central Pollution Control Board's Swachh Vaayu Sarvekshan (Clean Air Survey) of 2023, among cities with a population of over one million, Indore has secured the first position.
Indore, India received promising news this month regarding its high-precision air quality monitoring stations, which clocked their sixth month providing valuable data for research purposes. In a collaborative effort by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Clean Air Catalyst, and the Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC), three advanced air quality monitoring stations were deployed in February last year.
On the occasion of India’s 77th Independence Day, the Indore district administration extended its appreciation to the Clean Air Catalyst project for its remarkable contribution towards enhancing the air quality of Indore.
इंदौर: 77वें स्वतंत्रता दिवस के विशेष अवसर पर आयोजित एक भव्य समारोह के दौरान इंदौर जिला प्रशासन ने क्लीन एयर कैटलिस्ट प्रोजेक्ट को नगरीय क्षेत्र में वायु गुणवत्ता सुधार हेतु सराहनीय योगदान के लिए सम्मानित किया।
At the 2018 UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn, the World Health Organisation presented alarming new data revealing 9 out of 10 people breathe air containing high levels of pollutants and around 7 million people every year die from exposure to fine particles in polluted air. This threat has not abated, cities around the world remain at the frontlines of this interlinked health and climate crisis.
In April, 25 elected members of the Nairobi City County Assembly joined representatives from the Nairobi Air Quality Working Group (N-AIR), Nairobi City County Government and other stakeholders in a two-day workshop focused on better understanding the links between air quality and climate change.
The Clean Air Catalyst, alongside partner Vital Strategies, held a workshop focused on the relationship between air pollution and health for public health officials from each sub-county in Nairobi on April 20 and 21.
160 traffic police officers in Indore took part in an awareness training program on the health impacts of air pollution held May 4-7.
Indore sent out a strong clean air message to the country during Holika Dahan and Rangpanchami – two major festivals that see massive public participation.
Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) has signed a memorandum of understanding with Clean Air Catalyst, building upon recent progress to expand air quality monitoring and data in Indore, Madhya Pradesh.
Indore is known as India's cleanest city-having secured the title seven years in a row in Swachh Bharat National Cleanliness Surveys. The commercial capital of Madhya Pradesh, also noted for its tradition of innovation, is now determined to clean its air. On February 15, the "Clean Air, Clean Indore" campaign was endorsed by the city’s mayor at the unveiling ceremony of three new air quality monitoring (AQM) stations set up by Clean Air Catalyst.
A key objective of the Clean Air Catalyst is to exchange knowledge, build trust and foster opportunities to elevate the voices of those most impacted by air pollution, particularly women and low-income communities.