Air quality in urban areas is monitored, clean and healthy

Preserve and rehabilitate Lebanon’s natural assets so they cater for the health and quality of life of the Lebanese people for present and future generations

A Clean, Preserved and Resilient Environment

1.Air pollution occurs when harmful or excessive quantities of substances are introduced into Earth's atmosphere. Sources of air pollution include gases (such as ammonia, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxides, methane and chlorofluorocarbons), particulates (both organic and inorganic), and biological molecules.

2.The generic term ‘air pollution’ encompasses both indoor air pollution and poor urban (or outdoor) air quality, which are listed as two of the world's worst toxic pollution problems

3.The scope of this policy is aimed at addressing outdoor air pollution

1.Ambient Concentration of air pollutants in urban/rural areas compared to WHO and Ministry of Environment standards

2.Air quality index

3.Air quality guideline levels (WHO)

1.Overall, air pollution causes the deaths of around 7 million people worldwide each year, and is the source of some of the world’s worst environmental health risks

2.Productivity losses and degraded quality of life caused by air pollution are estimated to cost the world economy $5 trillion per year

3.Air pollution in Lebanon is affecting millions of people living in mostly urban and peri-urban areas where smog, small particles, and toxic pollutants pose serious health concerns

4.Beirut’s ambient particulate matter (PM) stands at 100%-200% more than the World Health Organization’s (WHO)  recommended maximum

5.A World Bank study estimated that air pollution in Lebanon caused the deaths of more than 1,800 people in 2013, and posed a loss to society amounting around $2.6 billion

6.When private generators work 3h/day, they contribute to 38% of total air pollution in Beirut

1.Three of the four main sources of air pollution in Lebanon are endemic problems that need far reaching and costly integrated policies to be tackled in the medium to long term:

• The transport sector and its reliance on cars and the type of fuel used
• The electricity sector and its reliance on diesel private generators
• The waste sector and the associated dumping and burning
• The construction sector, quarries and the cement industry

2.For all four sources of air pollution short term solutions are difficult to develop and/or implement because of the lack of infrastructure or political gridlock

3.Austerity measures and limited financial resources reduce the ability of the GoL  to implement the National Strategy for air quality management

4.The Ministry of Environment announced in July 2019 that it has shut down all of its air-quality monitoring stations in preparation for “deep spending cuts” in the 2019 state budget

1.After the parliament passed the law on air quality in 2018, the government subsequently adopted the national strategy for air quality management (2015-2030)

2.Law 78/2018 aims to protect air quality, issuing new emissions limits

3.The national air monitoring network, which measures pollution levels in Lebanon and allows the Ministry of Environment to regulate pollutants in the air, was established over two phases starting in 2013 with the opening of five stations after Lebanon received a $1.64 million grant from Greece, with around $400,000 of that going toward the air monitoring stations

4.The second phase was launched with an EU grant of around $8.9 million and saw an additional 21 stations built in 2017 with around $1.68 million of the funding. All of these stations were connected to a central network at the Ministry of Environment and were the same type of stations used in the United States and the EU and met international standards

Policy Action

Short Term:

1.Improve national air quality monitoring capabilities (service provision)

2.Publicize air quality index by city/region (service provision)

3.Inform citizens on actions to take to protect vulnerable people i.e. babies, elderly, people with respiratory diseases (educational campaign)

4.Inform citizens on what to do when a peek pollution is reached (campaign)

5.Implement a set of emergency measures for peek pollution days e.g. impose alternate circulation for cars, stop construction sites (command and control)

Medium to Long Term:

1.Develop and implement an integrated mobility strategy including objectives in terms of clean vehicles, alternative modes of transportation, and public transportation, ultimately reducing the number of vehicles in use (Institutional change, then service provision)

2.Develop and implement an integrated waste management strategy that adopts decentralization and is centered around sorting and recycling (Institutional change, then service provision)

3.Provide 24/7 electricity to make diesel generators irrelevant in cities, switch to gas as a main fossil fuel for electricity, and progressively increase the renewables part in the energy mix (Institutional change, then service provision)

4.Control cement plants stack emissions and increase standards (standards)