Climate Change and Urban Air Pollution Health Impacts in Indonesia

Abstract

Climate change in Indonesia greatly affects economy, poor population, human health, and the environment. It influences air pollutant emissions as higher emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂) have caused rapidly worsening air pollution. Urban areas being most affected by air pollution. The transportation sector contributes the most (80%) to the air pollution followed by emissions from industry, forest fires, and domestic activities. The large number of vehicles together with lack of infrastructure results in major traffic congestions resulting in high levels of air polluting substances, which have a significant negative effect on public health. Current air pollution problems are greatest in Indonesia as it caused 50% of morbidity across the country. Diseases stemming from vehicular emissions and air pollution include acute respiratory infection, bronchial asthma, bronchitis, and eye, skin irritations, lung cancer, and cardiovascular diseases. The prevalence and incidence rate of diseases related to air pollution is predicted to become worse in the near future since the range growth of energy consumption is about 6–8% per year. It is impacted to the increasing of NOx up to 51% (from 814 kt/year in 2015 to 1,225 kt/year in 2030), PM_2.5 up to 26% (from 87.7 kt/year in 2015 to 110.5 kt/year in 2030), as well as other pollutants such as SO₂, PM₁₀, VOC, and O₃. Most recently, some studies on developing scenarios for reducing emission have been conducted. These include analysis of fuel economy and the time effective for Euro 4 standard implementation as compliment to transportation improvement policy in Indonesia, in which it suggested that the government of Indonesia must enhance energy security and mitigate CO₂ emissions, improve efficiency in energy production and use, increase reliance on non-fossil fuels, and sustain the domestic supply of oil and gas through decreased fossil fuel consumption, support the use of proposed breakthrough technologies, and protect human health from air pollution by conducting more research on health vulnerability and implementing more effective adaptation of human health.