Project

Supporting action and planning to reduce short-lived climate pollutants in Bogotá

The project aims to improve Bogotá’s air management process and build technical capabilities on air pollutant reduction initiatives for better air. Working with SEI based at the University of York and Bogotá’s environment agency, the project integrates Short-Lived Climate Pollutant (SLCP) analysis. The project reviews the co-benefits of implementing Bogotá’s Air Plan tool for informed decision-making and actions to reduce air pollution from black carbon and other co-pollutant emissions.

Photo: Filippo Manaresi / Getty Images

Active project

2023–2025

Project contacts

Jenniffer Pedraza / jenniffer.pedraza@york.ac.ukChris Malley / chris.malley@sei.org

Background

In March 2024, IQAir unveiled its 2023 World Air Report, a comprehensive assessment of global air quality. Among the 7,812 cities studied, Bogotá emerged as a city with improved air quality, ranking 47th among regional capitals with a 2023 average of 13.4 particulate matter (PM_2.5) concentrations compared to 2022 with 15.1. PM_2.5 is an air pollution particle that is not visible to the human eye but can cause health problems.

Colombians have long grappled with pollution from diverse sources. In urban areas, vehicle emissions and industrial pollutants cloud the air, while rural regions contend with wood and solid fuel usage for cooking and heating. The annual wildfire season further exacerbates air quality woes, with a staggering 2,378 wildfires recorded by October 2023—a 69% increase from the previous year.

Colombia is responding proactively to addressing its air pollution challenges. In 2018, the nation developed a National Strategy for Mitigating Short-Lived Climate Pollutants (SLCPs). This strategy implemented reduction measures and established a mechanism to assess their impact on air quality with climate change considerations. Colombia’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), submitted in 2020, set an impressive precedent as the third country to prominently feature black carbon in its NDC.

The country’s capital city Bogotá has integrated actions in its Air Plan 2030 to manage the sources and emissions of air pollutants for the city and environs. On this upward trajectory, Colombia achieved a remarkable 10% reduction in average PM_2.5 concentration in 2023, reaching the WHO interim target 3 levels. Bogotá, in particular, led the charge with an 11% decrease relative to 2022—the city’s lowest value in four years.

To create and sustain mitigation pathways for air quality administration, especially for SLCPs, the District Environmental Secretariat of Bogotá is working with SEI to develop a comprehensive assessment of air quality management and greenhouse gas emission mitigation policies and measures. SEI and the agency will work together to strengthen the secretariat’s technical capacity to mitigate the effects of air pollution on the city’s citizens.

Bogotá faced severe air pollution in the past decade, causing around 2,320 premature deaths in 2019. Bogotá’s local government developed several plans to enhance air quality and public health to combat this issue. In December 2023, SEI and Bogotá’s Secretariat of Environment signed an agreement for collaborative research with funding support from the CCAC.

The Secretariat supports this project in many ways especially through the use of its forecast air quality modelling called Sistema Integrado de Modelación de Calidad de Aire de Bogotá (SIMCAB), and the administration of the Bogotá Air Quality Monitoring Network (RMCAB), currently made up of 19 monitoring stations, distributed throughout the city, which allows the collection of information on the concentration of particulate matter. The Secretariat also has seven AE33 aethalometers instruments for real-time monitoring and speciation of air-borne black carbon, which allows measuring and evidencing the progressive reduction of emission concentration. SEI’s York Centre researchers at the University of York will use the Low Emissions Analysis Platform (LEAP) to develop local emissions scenarios and assess mitigation strategies for Bogotá.

Project objective

There are four project objectives:

Provide the city of Bogotá with the methodological bases for evaluating the co-benefits of the projects of the Strategic Plan for the Comprehensive Management of Air Quality in Bogotá.
Develop a methodology to assess the co-benefits of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, short-lived pollutants (BC) and criterion pollutants (PM_2.5).
Strengthen technical capacities through training using the LEAP IBC integrated analysis tool to evaluate mitigation measures for GHGs, short-lived pollutants and criterion pollutants.
Strengthen the SEI’s research tools on air governance in cities in the geographic south.

To achieve the above objectives, the Secretariat and SEI will collaborate to estimate the reduction of black carbon emissions and other air pollutants resulting from evaluated mitigation efforts in the city; and conduct an analysis, of the co-benefits associated with the implementation of various reduction measures, specifically related to black carbon and other air pollutants. These, among other things, will be captured in a document that shares the results of the evaluation of co-benefits from air quality management projects with the public.

Jenniffer Pedraza

Research Associate

SEI York

Chris Malley

Senior Research Fellow

SEI York

Representatives from SEI Latin America and Bogota's environment agency at the MOU signing ceremony

From pollution to progress: Bogotá’s strategy for harmonizing climate, air quality and health

Feature / SEI and Bogotá’s environment agency are collaborating on an approach to reduce black carbon.

24 January 2024 / About Cities, Pollution, Short lived climate pollutants and Transport

Smog settle over the city of Santiago, Chile.

Clearing the air: advancing regional efforts for clean air in Latin America and the Caribbean

Perspective / Collective action is needed to improve air quality in Latin American and the Caribbean. This perspective highlights trends and priorities for the region.

6 September 2023 / About Cities, Mitigation, Pollution and Short lived climate pollutants