The integration of climate change considerations into local air quality management plans in South Africa.
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Date
2011
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Abstract
In recent years there has been considerable advancement in our scientific understanding of the
linkages and interactions between climate change and air quality. A warmer, evolving climate
is likely to have severe consequences for air quality due to impacts on pollution sources and
meteorology. The issues of poor air quality and anthropogenic induced climate change further
share common sources of pollutants and thus options for control. The possibility to include
these complex linkages to climate change in South Africa’s air quality policy, the National
Environmental Management: Air Quality Act (Act No.39 of 2004) (the AQA), includes the use
of local air quality management plans (AQMPs). The extent to which South African cities are
currently incorporating climate change concerns into existing AQMPs and the opportunities for
improved integration of these two issues was investigated using the eThekwini Municipality or
the city of Durban as a case study. Climate change and air quality issues are currently dealt
with separately in Durban, overlooking an opportunity to derive multiple benefits from
integrative policies. This case study primarily focused on understanding the role that the AQMP
could play in support of creating a low carbon resilient city through its influence on greenhouse
gas (GHG) emissions. Emission inventories focusing on both air pollutants and GHG emissions
were developed for two of the areas for intervention prioritised in Durban’s AQMP, namely the
road transportation and industrial sectors. The emissions inventories were used as a basis to
explore air pollution interventions that are likely to result in trade-offs or synergies (or co-benefits)
for GHG mitigation. For the industrial sector it was found that the implementation of
industrial energy efficiency and fuel switching measures would be favourable for co-benefits. In
the case of road transport, reducing the vehicle kilometres travelled by privately owned motor
vehicles and improving the efficiency of road freight transport offers the greatest potential for
achieving co-benefits. The case study further illustrates that in the short-to medium-term air
quality management (AQM) planning may help to promote climate change awareness and
action toward climate change mitigation through improved co-ordination of industrial, energy
and transport plans. The introduction of voluntary programmes, municipal by-laws and or
regulatory guidance from the AQA, that support strategies with co-benefits is critical to ensure
that local AQMPs can be used to promote reductions or avoidance of GHG emissions. In the
long-term, climate change impacts on meteorological factors that influence air quality also need
to be considered in AQMPs so that the most effective interventions can be selected to support
the local government’s climate change adaptation goals.
Description
Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2011.
Keywords
Climatic changes., Air quality management--KwaZulu-Natal--Durban., Theses--Environmental management.