Air pollution is recognized as a public health and environment crisis. At the first session of the UN Environment Assembly in June 2014, air pollution was identified as a top priority that requires immediate action. Member countries requested UN Environment to support national efforts in addressing air pollution issues. Less than a year after, global health leaders came together at the World Health Assembly and recognized air pollution as an urgent public health crisis. They called for an enhanced global response to the adverse health effects of air pollution.
In Asia Pacific, there has been several intergovernmental and voluntary cooperation frameworks and initiatives working on air pollution with varying focus and functions and scope in terms of membership. There was also a growing body of evidence on the status, impacts and solutions of air pollution generated by different scientific bodies and research institutes in the region.
There was a need to set-up a coordination mechanism to bring together different frameworks and initiatives to maximize synergies and to consolidate available evidence to identify the most effective solutions to reduce emissions and improve health and wellbeing. These actions were expected to help deliver on the commitments from Resolution 1/7 of the first UN Environment Assembly on ‘Strengthening the role of the United Nations Environment Programme in promoting air quality’.
As such, the Asia Pacific Clean Air Partnership was established in 2015 as a mechanism and platform to promote coordination and collaboration among various clean air initiatives in Asia Pacific.
Building on this global momentum, much has been achieved in the clean air agenda over the past few years. The Asia Pacific Clean Air Partnership is now responding to 2017 Resolution 3/8 of the third UN Environment Assembly on ‘Preventing and reducing air pollution to improve air quality globally’. The air quality resolution requested the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme to, inter alia, ‘support the enhancement of regional cooperation to address air pollution…in close cooperation with the Asia Pacific Clean Air Partnership, and to organize regional communities of practice for air quality management through the regional offices of the United Nations Environment Programme.’ (paragraph 7(c)).
