By Shelbie Bostedt
WASHINGTON – The State Department and Environmental Protection Agency launched a program Wednesday to monitor the air quality of countries around the world, citing China’s acknowledgement of its pollution as a result of U.S. monitoring as a success story.
Secretary of State John Kerry and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy announced the initiative, signaling the growing recognition of air pollution as a worldwide threat. The two signed an agreement pledging cooperation between their agencies. U.S. diplomatic missions overseas will provide air quality data to EPA’s AirNow system from State Department outposts around the world.
“AirNow is a powerful tool, if you live in the United States,” Kerry said. “But we have hundreds of thousands of employees in 150 posts around the world where it’s hard to have air quality data.”
AirNow collects data from points throughout the United States to provide constant updates of air pollution levels. This initiative will provide real-time air quality reports for countries that do not monitor this information currently. The program will monitor particulate matter in the atmosphere that can cause asthma, heart disease and auto-immune disorder, according to Kerry.
“We have learned that when people learn about the environment around them … they want to do something about it,” Kerry said.
The State Department will work through its existing missions overseas to share U.S. knowledge about monitoring and improving air quality and build or maintain alliances with host governments. It will expand first to India, with environmental experts traveling abroad in the coming weeks.
Recording this data will allow the U.S. to better track air quality on an international scale and provide the foundation for multinational air quality partnerships to prevent the worsening of pollution worldwide.
The inspiration for the agreement came from the EPA monitoring the air quality at the U.S. embassy in China five years ago, which served as an impetus for the Chinese government to acknowledge its pollution problem.
Kerry and McCarthy hope the initiative will open lines of communication and cooperation to advance international air quality standards on par with those put in place by the United States in recent years, citing China as a success story.
“The two greatest emitters of greenhouse gases have found common ground,” Kerry said. “This is cooperation we need to see to push back against these [pollution] challenges.”
