To mark the International Day of Clean Air for blue skies, the World Bank is publishing a Country Environmental Analysis for the Lao PDR, analyzing how the country can use its commitment to greener growth to stimulate economic recovery from the current slowdown, and to improve health across the Lao population.
The theme for this year’s Clean Air Day is “Healthy Air, Healthy Planet”, emphasizing the huge impact of air pollution on human health aspects, especially considering the COVID-19 pandemic. The new World Bank report investigates the causes and effects of air pollution in Laos. Household air pollution in the country is mainly caused by solid fuel for cooking, traditionally carried out by women, and contributes to the high rate of respiratory diseases. Outdoor air pollution is rising as more vehicles take to the roads, smog builds up in the agricultural burning season, and coal-fired power stations are built.
The report applauds the Lao approach to identifying priority challenges and opportunities for moving to greener growth and recommends that other countries learn from this. It acknowledges the Lao government’s commitment to a new economic model that can preserve the environment and strengthen resilience to natural disasters and economic shock. This shaped the country’s National Green Growth Strategy, adopted in 2019, and can now provide a fundamental pillar of the strategy for bouncing back from COVID-19. The pandemic and associated economic crisis underscore the need to accelerate the movement toward green growth to support sustainable and inclusive recovery, with scarce resources prioritized for the most urgent challenges.
Pollution is a public health major risk that slows economic growth. Environmental health risks result in around 10,000 deaths each year – over 20% of total deaths in Laos – and cause more than 100 million days of illness. The annual economic cost is estimated at nearly 15% percent of GDP. Pre-existing health conditions such as heart or respiratory problems, which make people more vulnerable to COVID-19, can be caused or worsened by airborne or land-based pollution.
Meanwhile the depletion of the natural resources that fueled much of Lao PDR’s economic growth over the last 20 year robs populations of opportunities to meet their own needs, while also increasing vulnerability to extreme weather events. Until recently, forest loss and degradation cost the country nearly 3 percent of GDP per year. The poor are disproportionately burdened by environmental pollution and degradation.
The new Country Environmental Analysis also cites various successful practices from around the world, and data from local research, that can inform policies for greener growth and pollution control. It suggests ways of tackling Laos’ most serious environmental health risks, plus further strategies for bolstering the rural economy amid a changing climate and strengthening warning systems against natural disasters.
To mark Clean Air Day, the United Nations Environment Programme is holding the Third Asia Pacific Clean Air Partnership Joint Forum on 8-9 Sept 2021