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Indore is better equipped than ever to take clean air action, now that the Clean Air Catalyst has released 18 months of new air quality data on the open data platform, OpenAQ. The data release marks a significant step forward in Indore’s journey toward comprehensive, accessible, and actionable air quality data.
Understanding Jakarta’s Air Quality: Three Insights from the First Half of 2024
An Introduction to the Clean Air Catalyst’s Data Insights Series
The Clean Air Catalyst held two one-day air pollution workshops last month for cohorts of Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) community health workers and Indore’s traffic police officers. The workshops explored the science and health impacts of leading transportation solutions for air pollution in Indore. The Catalyst organized them in partnership with the city’s district health and traffic control departments.
Kenya's capital, Nairobi, has joined the ranks of cities utilizing technology to assess and improve air quality. In an event held at Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital on September 13, 2024, the Clean Air Catalyst Program, in collaboration with the Nairobi City County Government, the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and the World Resources Institute (WRI), launched two air quality monitoring sites.
The World Health Organization estimates that air pollution kills 7 million people yearly.
As the Indore Clean Air Coalition takes its first steps, mayor Pushyamitra Bhargav's leadership and vision have set the stage for a cleaner, healthier future for the city. The journey toward cleaner air in Indore has begun, with a focus on collaboration, community involvement, and actionable goals.
The Nairobi Air Quality Working Group participated in the 2024 CLEAN-Air Forum in Lagos, Nigeria, held from July 8-12, the event aimed to foster regional collaborations for air quality management in Africa.
On July 31st, the Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC), the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and Clean Air Catalyst launched the Indore Clean Air Coalition.
The Clean Air Catalyst Indore team’s Sudhir Gore recently sat down with the city’s Chief Health and Medical Officer (CMHO), Dr. Bhure Singh Setia, for an interview on the intersections of air pollution and health.
Clean Air Catalyst team joined Jakarta’s celebration of World Environment Day 2024 alongside Jakarta’s Environment Agency, Jak Sehat, and Breath Jakarta.
Research around the world shows that pollution levels can vary enormously within the same city and even within the same neighborhood. Local monitoring data can thus prove essential to understanding air pollution sources, how they affect different communities and groups, and where to target policy solutions. That’s why Clean Air Catalyst launched three air quality monitoring stations in Indore in January 2023. These new stations have significantly improved the city’s air quality tracking capabilities in some important ways:
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.
Air pollution is one of the biggest threats to human health, economy, and the world's ecological balance. In the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, studies have shown that air quality is consistently poor, with average annual PM2.5 levels—a measure of air pollution—more than double the World Health Organization's (WHO) guideline levels. Furthermore, the ever-increasing population and the intensification of industries, deforestation, construction work, and vehicular traffic, has caused the air quality to worsen over the years.
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.
No Car Day 2024 provides a critical opportunity to experience the tangible benefits of cleaner air.