Half a million people die prematurely in Asia every year because of air pollution, while climate change, which is partly caused by air pollutants and greenhouse gases, has been recently manifesting its severe impact in our country’s weather.

These occurrences strengthen the resolve of various stakeholders comprising the Partnership for Clean Air (PCA) in the Philippines to improve air quality and reduce greenhouse gas emissions as they celebrate the tenth year of the Clean Air Law this Clean Air Month of November.

The celebration, led by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Department of Transportation and Communications, Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities (CAI-Asia) Center, and Partnership for Clean Air consists of workshops, seminars, forums, program launches, and recognition ceremonies promoting reductions in air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from the transport, energy, and other sectors.

Organizers cited ten outstanding achievements from various sectors at the national and local levels in the ten years of the landmark Philippine Clean Air Act of 1999, namely: the Bio-fuels Act, the Renewable Energy Act, cleaner gasoline through lowering of the sulfur content of diesel and the benzene and aromatics of gasoline, Marikina bikeways, unleaded fuel, promotion of electric tricycles in Fort Bonifacio and electric jeepneys in Makati, smoke-free ordinances, anti-smoke belching efforts of LGUs, wind power in Ilocos, biomass use by Philippine industries, LPG taxis, the replacement of two-stroke to four-stroke tricycles in San Fernando, La Union and Mandaluyong, and the Clean Air 10 Declaration.

“More work, however, needs to be done especially now that air pollution and climate change are strongly linked; bringing air pollution down to safe levels can cut on greenhouse gas emissions thus halting the effects of climate change,” DENR Secretary Lito Atienza said in a recent conference empowering local government units to take leadership in cleaning the air in their communities.

The DoTC, which hosted a forum on greening the transport sector during the Clear Month celebration, is now implementing the National Environmentally Sustainable Transport (EST) Strategy signed January 2009, as part of the Asian program initiated in Nagoya, Japan in 2003 by the United Nations Centre for Regional Development. The EST and other urban transport initiatives complement the comprehensive program of the Sustainable Urban Mobility in Asia (SUMA) to improve urban air quality and road safety and reduce contribution of transport to climate change.