Bridging air quality, health equity and clean energy

Organisers: ICIMOD, Jigme Singye Wangchuk (JSW) Law School

About the workshop

The Jigme Singye Wangchuk (JSW) Law School  and the Himalayan Resilience Enabling Action Programme (HI-REAP) of International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), is organising a national consultation workshop to strengthen science-policy-practice-investment dialogue on air, health equity and clean energy. The workshop aims to bring together key local stakeholders from and beyond the region to establish a unified and action-oriented network to tackle air pollution, promote health inclusivity and advance access to clean energy with clean action plans.

Objectives

The specific objectives of this workshop are to:

• Highlight the findings of household survey on clean energy for better air and health and inclusivity

• Introduce tools and methods for governments to anticipate and prepare health inequality and energy poverty for inclusive solutions for future investment.

• Address air pollution issues and health inequality for future action plan.

Expected outcomes

• Government representatives gain a deeper understanding of the interlinkages between air pollution-health inequality-energy poverty.

• Initiation of a future working group focused on tackling air pollution, promoting health inclusivity, and advancing access to clean energy.

Background 

In Bhutan, household air pollution (HAP) remains the leading contributor to overall air pollution (32.8%), followed by industry (13.9%), anthropogenic dust (10.6%), agriculture (10.2%), and the energy sector (8.2%) (Government of Bhutan & UNICEF-Bhutan, 2024). This indicates the link between gender inequalities and energy poverty, as many households particularly in rural – areas in Bhutan struggle to access and afford essential energy services such as for cooking and residential heating. The United National Development Programme 2012) reported that the people of Bhutan are among the highest consumers of fuelwood in the South Asia region. Fuelwood is primarily used for heating, followed by cooking (Dema et.al., 2023). The average fuelwood consumption per household is about 54 cubic meters annual, which is significantly higher than the 16 cubic meters consumed annually by households in Northen India (Wangchuk et al. 2014; Brooks et al. 2016).

Recently, in collaboration with JSW Law School, we conducted a household study on indoor air pollution through the Gender Equality and Socially Inclusive (GESI)–clean energy nexus in Haa (November 2024) and Lingzhi (April 2025). The research aimed to support Bhutan’s energy transition by promoting clean energy solutions that reduce fuelwood use and improve health and well-being, particularly for women and children. In response, a pilot action research project on residential heating was launched in Haa in February 2025, exploring GESI solutions by comparing traditional heating stoves (Bhukhari) with improved stoves, in this case, the Himalayan Rocket Stove with an aim to: i) Reduce fuel wood use to ease the burden on women and children, ii) Improve indoor air quality for better health outcomes iii) improve room/space heating efficiency.

Local government representatives often face challenges in addressing the interconnected issues of air pollution, health equity, and clean energy due to limited access to relevant data, indicators, and tools. To help bridge this gap, the indoor air pollution–GESI–clean energy project also gathered secondary data from the Government of Bhutan, focusing on clean energy, demographic, and health-related information that can support more informed and responsive national and local decision-making.

Therefore, this national consultation workshop aims to foster a dialogue on these interlinkages and introduce ways to reduce air pollution and work toward better solutions for future with investment.