12th Better Air Quality Conference (BAQ 2026)

Background

Air pollution is one of the most urgent public health and environmental challenges in South Asia, particularly across the Indo-Gangetic Plains and Himalayan Foothills (IGP-HF). short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) also known as super pollutants such as black carbon, methane, tropospheric ozone precursors, and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) significantly degrade air quality, harm health, accelerate climate warming, and threaten water security. These pollutants drive PM 2.5 exposure, ground-level ozone formation, heat stress, and glacier melt, disproportionately impacting vulnerable populations and fragile ecosystems, with cascading effects on agriculture, food security, and livelihoods.

Mitigation strategies for super pollutants must be integrated into broader air quality management frameworks to ensure efficiency and maximise impact. Both air pollutants and super pollutants share common sources, sectors, and resources such as energy, transport, industry, agriculture and others making siloed approaches ineffective. Hence, within a given airshed i.e. the IGP-HF, by aligning strategies, countries can leverage shared monitoring systems, mitigation strategies, policy instruments, and financing mechanisms to deliver significant co-benefits for health, climate, and water security.

Due to their transboundary nature, SLCPs and air pollutants demand coordinated regional responses. Their interconnected impacts on health, climate, and water resources call for an integrated framework rather than isolated interventions. Mitigation of super pollutants offers immediate, high-impact benefits: targeted reductions in black carbon and methane can quickly improve health outcomes, curb near-term warming, and slow cryosphere loss delivering co-benefits for climate resilience and water security. An integrated approach also enables coordinated regional action, reduces duplication of efforts, and accelerates progress toward national clean air goals and international commitments like Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Ultimately, embedding super pollutant mitigation within air quality management plans creates a unified platform for tackling multiple challenges simultaneously, ensuring that interventions are cost-effective, scalable, and sustainable.

About the event

The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) is organising a dedicated session “Regionally coordinated actions on air and super pollutants through national strategies: towards health, climate and water security in the Indo-Gangetic Plains and Himalayan-Foothills (IGP-HF)” and contributing to panel discussions at the 12th Better Air Quality Conference (BAQ 2026). The event will focus on short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) and their role in accelerating climate warming, degrading air quality, and threatening water security. The event will also examine inefficiencies and missed opportunities when air and climate policies are disconnected.

Objectives

This event will convene policymakers, scientists, health experts, and practitioners to explore actionable pathways and collaborative solutions for better air quality management along with rapid SLCP reduction, strengthening regional cooperation and accelerating progress toward shared health, climate, and development goals.