More than two decades ago, the inhabitants of several cities in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) saw how their mornings were turning grey, the air felt heavier and the landscape less lucid. In recent years, warnings for poor air quality, (when air quality does not meet WHO recommended levels), have become increasingly common in LAC, specifically in cities such as Santiago in Chile, Mexico City in Mexico, Bogotá and Medellín in Colombia, and Lima in Peru.

In 2023, the local governments in Bogota, Santiago and Lima have gone as far as to declare an environmental alert due to the high concentrations of particulate matter, which are tiny particles such as dust, dirt, soot and other solids and liquids in the air.

Air quality is a problem in the world. In 2019, the WHO reported that 99% of the global population lives in spaces with air quality that does not meet its guidelines. The LAC region is not an exception, where 95% of the total population are exposed to polluted air and over 80% of the population lives in urban areas.  In the Americas, more than 320,000 premature deaths are attributable to air pollution, with vulnerable people, such as children, pregnant women, and people over 60, facing the brunt of the long and short-term health impacts.  Economically in LAC, the total cost attributed to premature deaths caused by particulate matter represents 3.4% of GDP.

LAC action for blue skies

Countries in the LAC region have taken action to address air pollution as an integrated region. In 2022, the region launched the Actions on Air Quality in Latin America and the Caribbean 2022–2025 and the Regional Strategy for Climate Change for the Central America Region (2021-2025) with action statements on air quality.  Several LAC national and sub-national governments have formulated and implemented different actions in large cities to mitigate and improve their air quality. Such government initiatives include air quality monitoring, solid waste management, cleaner production and energy efficiency in industry, sustainable transport, and at least eight LAC countries  have national air quality management strategies, frameworks, or action plans formulated or implemented.

However, according to UNEP, there are still countries that do not have a current framework to reduce air pollution and some have delays in the implementation of their current policies and regulations. So, despite the significant efforts carried out in the last few years in the LAC region, more ambitious plans for long-term solutions and implementation are needed. The recent scientific evidence from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) emphasized that air pollution has a direct correlation with climate change as they share similar drivers and sources of emission. Therefore, addressing air quality also remains crucial to meeting the climate goals as well as improving human health and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

Clearing the air: identifying air pollution drivers, impacts and solutions  

Collective responsibility is crucial for addressing air quality challenges in LAC, especially as air is shared across national and regional borders. This cooperation is important for understanding the drivers and impacts of air pollution as well as the appropriate policy measures to address it.

The drivers can be better understood from two perspectives. First, assessing the impact of key air pollutants, beyond CO2, is crucial. There are other air pollutants that have the potential to trap and heat up the earth’s surface beyond CO2. These are called non- CO2 climate forcers such as black carbon (a component of particulate matter), tropospheric ozone, hydrofluorocarbons, and methane. Though a lot is known about CO2, it is crucial to understand more about these non- CO2 climate forcers, where and how they arise and the impact they have on air quality, as well as their impact on the climate system, weather, and human health. Second, using the ongoing findings from these assessments, mitigation and adaptation policies can be proposed to support LAC decisionmaking for clean air and climate policies.

In this context, SEI, a key partner of the multidisciplinary four-year research project ‘FOCI’, is developing emissions inventories and co-benefit assessments focusing on the impacts of non-CO2 forcers in LAC (and other regions). The project will address the existing knowledge gaps in the region by assessing the individual and cumulative contribution of non-CO2 forcers and their sources, while modelling tools will be used to investigate the impact of mitigation and adaptation policies for future development in LAC. 

Such inventories are enriched with local emissions, estimation tools, and regional maps, which are crucial for reducing data uncertainty. Although many countries in the LAC region have estimated their air pollutant emissions to generate mitigation measures, most air quality studies in the region use global databases that do not always consider local practices and technologies specific to the country or region. In addition, emission inventories could aid in the comprehension of transboundary pollution caused by regional practices such as solid waste burning and forest fires, as well as the development of regional coordination mechanisms to reduce these practices. 

Any initiatives introduced and implemented in the LAC region require cooperation from country partners and diverse stakeholders. As part of the FOCI project, a global stakeholder engagement strategy will provide updated scientific evidence for supporting national, regional and international policymaking. This evidence is important, especially as some Latin American countries have committed to work on non-CO2 climate forcers in their 2030 climate change commitments in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) frameworks. This is the case in Mexico, Chile, and Colombia, while countries such as Argentina, Panama, Dominican Republic, and Costa Rica are working to include specific targets for air pollutants and methane in the next NDC update in 2025. 

By working collectively, data from the FOCI project can feed into the development of these updated NDC’s and support the establishment and implementation of air quality actions across the LAC region. These actions can have multiple benefits including significantly reducing air pollutants and achieving co-benefits in health and climate, and contributing to the fulfilment of the SDGs, the Paris Agreement and the COP agendas. Increasing regional cooperation will allow countries to face these common problems together, in a more robust and harmonized manner, and not as isolated entities.