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Research on Urban Air Pollutant Emissions and Co-control Strategies with Climate Action

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Air, Climate Change and Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (16 November 2023) | Viewed by 12004

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Center for Climate Action, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso, Antonio Bellet 314, Providencia, Chile
Interests: air pollution mitigation; atmospheric modeling; short-lived climate pollutants; air quality management; climate policy

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Guest Editor
1. Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Desert Research Institute, Reno, NV, USA
2. Transportation Research & Injury Prevention Programme (TRIP-C), Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India
Interests: air quality modeling; forecasting; biomass burning; short-lived climate pollutants

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues:

Climate change increasingly represents humanity’s gravest environmental challenge, and will likely cost the world 25-30 trillion dollars a year by 2050. Air pollution is our current (Swiss Re, 2021) and most pressing environmental challenge, accounting for roughly 7 million deaths per year, at a current cost of 30 trillion dollars per annum (World Bank, 2021).

The Paris Agreement has spurred 133 countries, covering 83% of global emissions and 91% of global GDP, to commit to net zero emissions between 2030 and 2060. However, an equivalent Paris Agreement on air pollution does not exist. Only 61% of countries measure air pollution, and an even lower 53% publish the data (Open AQ, 2022). No countries have adopted the WHO guidelines on air quality. While the world has committed to a net zero future, no countries have committed to delivering healthy air.

Air pollution is also entwined with climate change because the emissions driving both development problems come largely from the same sources (e.g. fossil fuel or biofuel burning). Furthermore, as there are also air pollutants that lead to cooling such as sulfates and nitrates, policies that do not optimize climate change mitigation and air quality simultaneously run the risk of causing unanticipated tradeoffs or ‘win–lose’ outcomes. Explicitly targeting the mitigation of SLCPs, while incorporating air pollution considerations more broadly into climate change and development efforts is therefore a logical step to address these inextricably linked issues.

This Special Issue will explore the synergies on integrated air quality and climate action, highlighting the ways in which air pollution emissions standards have accelerated the adoption of renewable energy and electromobility. The works published will discuss how a lack of integration has led to false solutions that have come at a cost to air pollution standards.

Overall, we aim to showcase policies that have contributed to the synergistic reduction of criteria and climate pollutants, highlight how the integration of climate policy and air quality management increases the cost-effectiveness of mitigation policies, and propose policies that will allow science to more effectively exploit these synergies.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

atmospheric modelling; emissions modelling; cost–benefit analysis; effect of carbon pricing in mitigation of emissions; black carbon; electrification of heating, cooking and transportation; leapfrogging technologies; energy poverty; renewable energy policy; emissions standards; green hydrogen.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Marcelo A. Mena-Carrasco
Dr. Sarath Guttikunda
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • short-lived climate pollutants
  • black carbon
  • integrated air quality and climate mitigation

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

37 pages, 4159 KiB  
Review
What Is Polluting Delhi’s Air? A Review from 1990 to 2022
by Sarath K. Guttikunda, Sai Krishna Dammalapati, Gautam Pradhan, Bhargav Krishna, Hiren T. Jethva and Puja Jawahar
Sustainability 2023, 15(5), 4209; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15054209 - 26 Feb 2023
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 11621
Abstract
Delhi’s annual average PM2.5 concentration in 2021–22 was 100 μg/m3—20 times more than the WHO guideline of 5 μg/m3. This is an improvement compared to the limited information available for the pre-CNG-conversion era (~30%), immediately before and after [...] Read more.
Delhi’s annual average PM2.5 concentration in 2021–22 was 100 μg/m3—20 times more than the WHO guideline of 5 μg/m3. This is an improvement compared to the limited information available for the pre-CNG-conversion era (~30%), immediately before and after 2010 CWG (~28%), and the mid-2010s (~20%). These changes are a result of continuous technical and economic interventions interlaced with judicial engagement in various sectors. Still, Delhi is ranked the most polluted capital city in the world. Delhi’s air quality is a major social and political concern in India, often with questions regarding its severity and primary sources, and despite several studies on the topic, there is limited consensus on source contributions. This paper offers insight by reviewing the influence of Delhi’s urban growth since 1990 on pollution levels and sources and the evolution of technical, institutional, and legal measures to control emissions in the National Capital Region of Delhi. Full article
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