Publications·December 30, 2015
Clean Air Asia’s 2015 annual report shows the organization consolidating a region-wide, programmatic approach to air-quality management while moving several high-impact initiatives from design into implementation. The centerpiece is the Guidance Framework for Better Air Quality in Asian Cities: first presented formally to Asian environment ministries at the Asia Pacific Clean Air Partnership (APCAP) Joint Forum during Asia Pacific Clean Air Week in Bangkok, it serves as the operational core of the Integrated Programme for Better Air Quality in Asia (IBAQ). The framework maps practical steps for national and local decision-makers to reduce pollution, and its presentation and acceptance by ministries marked a milestone that set up subsequent capacity-building and rollout work.
Under the Air Quality and Climate Change Program, Clean Air Asia deepened support to cities through tools, data and training. In Jakarta, the team assessed the air-quality monitoring network and provided technical support for operations and maintenance—preparing the city for a monitoring upgrade that would enable regular public updates. The program also updated its regional air-quality database to include annual ambient data for nearly 500 cities across 17 countries; this update was undertaken within ADB’s South-South Twinning project and feeds the WHO’s Outdoor Air Pollution Global Database, improving access to reliable information for policy and planning.
A major capacity-building strand in 2015 was Train-for-Clean-Air (T4CA). Clean Air Asia consolidated its role as regional training hub—recognized by the Philippine Department of Environment and Natural Resources through Special Order No. 2015-991 designating national focal offices for T4CA and confirming Clean Air Asia as the regional hub. That same year, T4CA courses in the Philippines focused on profiling two- and three-wheeler fleets to help local governments craft evidence-based transport policies. The hub design and roll-out were positioned to institutionalize T4CA throughout Asia, with participating countries spanning the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Viet Nam, Myanmar, and Lao PDR.
The Clean Fuels and Vehicles workstream advanced policy and standards. Clean Air Asia assisted the Philippines’ Department of Energy in crafting an action plan for a light-duty vehicle fuel-economy labeling program. At the regional level, the organization worked with GIZ and the Global Fuel Economy Initiative to explore how fuel-economy policy could be more formally integrated into ASEAN processes, and contributed to embedding fuel-economy and sustainable transport in ASEAN’s Kuala Lumpur Transport Strategic Plan (2016–2025). It also engaged industry and regulators through an “F+L Week” session in Singapore and a technical workshop with the Asia Clean Fuels Association to support Indonesia’s path toward low-sulfur fuels and tighter fuel-quality specifications.
Green Freight and Logistics remains a strategic pillar, with the program helping initiate the Global Green Freight Action Plan under CCAC’s Diesel Emissions Initiative—bringing the green-freight agenda onto the global stage while progressing country implementation in Asia. The program’s three components are (i) establishing regional and national green-freight programs (including implementation support to China’s Green Freight Initiative and work with other governments); (ii) mobilizing a Green Freight Asia private-sector network with measurement/reporting methodologies and a platform for technology, capacity building, and finance; and (iii) improving knowledge and data on road freight to inform policy, including indicators and databases linked to the Environmentally Sustainable Transport Forum. 2015 highlights included a background paper for Bangladesh outlining actions to overcome overloading, data gaps, market fragmentation, and low awareness, and a Viet Nam online freight-exchange workshop with the Directorate for Roads that built understanding of digital freight-matching to improve efficiency.
The Low Emissions Urban Development program operates on “avoid-shift-improve,” mainstreaming low-emissions transport strategies in policies, investment and urban master plans; building knowledge exchanges; and elevating walkability/cycling on city agendas. In 2015, Clean Air Asia launched the Better Transport Data in Asia project to improve the availability and accessibility of transport data across the Asian Development Bank’s 40 developing member countries. The project prioritizes collection and curation of indicators to support ADB’s Sustainable Transport Initiative and will generate a transport model for each DMC to explore future scenarios—both datasets and models to be publicly accessible.
Alongside technical programs, Clean Air Asia progressed the Cities Clean Air Partnership (CCAP) / Cities for Clean Air certification concept. In August 2015, cities convened in Washington, D.C. to share experiences and identify actions—from building emissions inventories to promoting non-polluting transport modes. Subsequent stakeholder consultations were held on the sidelines of the Urban Environmental Accords Summit (Iloilo), the Asia-Pacific Urban Forum (Jakarta), and the APCAP Joint Forum (Bangkok) as inputs to the certification scheme, and Clean Air Asia joined the ISEAL Alliance for sustainability standards.
The report documents substantial China engagement. The landmark “China Air 2015” report was launched to monitor implementation of national and local policies under the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan, providing 2013–2014 air-quality data for 74 cities, policy summaries for three key regions (Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta) and national measures, plus case analyses of Beijing and Shanghai. Additional work in 2015 included a national VOCs control workshop (covering petrochemical, paint and ink sectors), an Air Quality Management & Emissions Inventory workshop in Shanghai, and a Sino-US enforcement workshop on vehicle emissions monitoring and policy implementation.
Finally, the report reiterates the problem context driving this work: most people in developing Asian cities breathe unhealthy air, and management capacity in many places is still catching up with fast-changing urban conditions—underscoring why Clean Air Asia positions itself as a regional resource hub for training, knowledge systems and city support.
Stand-out contributions in 2015
Formal regional adoption/presentation of the Guidance Framework—setting a shared roadmap for action.
City-level technical support (e.g., Jakarta monitoring assessment) plus an expanded 500-city data backbone.
Institutionalized training capacity via T4CA’s regional hub and national focal points in the Philippines.
Policy traction on fuel economy, low-sulfur fuels and regional ASEAN processes.
Freight decarbonization pushed through CCAC’s Global Green Freight Action Plan and country pilots (Bangladesh, Viet Nam).
Urban development & data initiatives, notably ADB’s 40-country transport-data and modeling effort.
Keywords (selection)
Guidance Framework for Better Air Quality; IBAQ Programme; Train-for-Clean-Air (T4CA); Clean Air Scorecard; Breathe Easy Jakarta; Air-quality monitoring network; WHO Outdoor Air Pollution Global Database; Emissions inventory; VOCs control; Fuel-economy labeling; Euro 4 standards; ASEAN Kuala Lumpur Transport Strategic Plan; Green Freight and Logistics; Global Green Freight Action Plan (CCAC); Bangladesh green freight background paper; Online freight exchange (Viet Nam); Better Transport Data in Asia; Transport models (ADB DMCs); Cities for Clean Air Certification; South–South Twinning; Low-sulfur fuels; Jeepney modernization (Philippines); City roadmaps; Policy enforcement; Multi-stakeholder engagement.