Hello! Halo! Kumusta! Xin chào! สวัสดี! မင်္ဂလာပါ! ជំរាបសួរ! ສະບາຍດີ!

Have you ever been in a toxic relationship? Here are some characteristics of such a relationship:

⛽ Gaslighting: disinformation and avoidance of blame

🧟 Stalking: inability to avoid them regardless of time and place

😵‍💫 Manipulating: confusing you, hampering your ability to think straight

🚩 Red flags everywhere! This relationship sounds terrible, right?

Well, what if I told you that this is not a description of your ex, but rather a depiction of Jakartan’s* relationship with their city's air?

*as well as many citizens of other large, urbanized cities across Southeast Asia and beyond

This week, we’re discussing the issue of air pollution across Southeast Asia, focusing on Jakarta in particular.

💭 Demystifying Air Pollution

😶‍🌫️ Clean Air is a benefit that only a privileged few enjoy. It is estimated that 90% of people worldwide breathe polluted air, the majority of whom reside in lower income countries in Asia or Africa. Moreover, around 7 million deaths are caused by air pollution each year (WHO, 2018). The UN has been raising awareness of this issue, designating September 7th as “Clean Air for blue skies Day”.

☠️ The issue is especially problematic across large urban Asian cities, where citizens' lives are reduced by around 5 years (UChicago, 2023). In Jakarta specifically, it’s 5.5 years! (AQLI, 2021). Moreover, it’s causing around 10,000 deaths, over 5,000 hospitalizations and costing the city over USD2.9B per year (Int’l J. Environ. Res. Public Health, 2023).

👀 Recently, all eyes have been on this issue as Jakarta has topped the list of most polluted cities in the world; even President Jokowi himself is suffering the consequences of this (Time, 2023).

📏 Wait, but how do we measure air pollution?

🔍 Similar to what we mentioned on our introductory newsletter, you can’t manage what you can’t measure, so it’s worth diving into the science a bit.

🧩 For starters, air pollution is a complex phenomenon consisting of a variety of pollutants, including: Particulate Matter (PM), Carbon Monoxide (CO), Ozone (O₃), Nitrogen Dioxide (NO₂), and Sulfur Dioxide (SO₂) (WHO, 2023). Below are the WHO’s recommended air quality guidelines:

🔬 For the purposes of this newsletter, we are going to focus on PM_2.5, which specifically refers to very fine particles in the air that are 2.5 microns or less in width—that’s about 30 times smaller than the width of a human hair (EPA, 2023)! This indicator is used as a proxy for air quality more broadly.

📈 In 2022, the average PM_2.5 levels in Indonesia were over 6x the WHO’s AQG standards on average! (IQAir, 2023).

🕵🏻 Yikes that’s pretty bad… So what’s the source of Jakarta’s air pollution? Let’s investigate!

⁉️ Quick poll before reading further!

The sources for this air pollution are multi-faceted and include everything from coal combustion 🏭 to open burning of waste 🔥 to vehicles 🚗. It’s also further complicated by seasonality! As those in Southeast Asia know, there are 2 seasons: wet 💦 & dry 🏜️. These seasons have an impact on the different pollutant sources.

🧐 Based on the above you might assume that air pollution is healthier when traffic is lower since it appears to be such a large explanatory variable—regardless of season. However, a quick comparison between traffic congestion vis-à-vis PM2.5 levels across Jakarta shows that they’re not as correlated as you might have suspected!

😲 Pay attention to Sunday in particular: regardless of that day having around half of the traffic congestion compared to the weekdays, the PM2.5 levels are barely lower!

☣️ That seems perplexing right? Why is that the case? Well it turns out that PM2.5 pollution is not solely caused by PM2.5 emissions but also by other pollutants that can transform into PM2.5, such as SO₂ and NO_x*. Taking a closer look at SO₂ and NO₂ emissions shows that power generation is a major contributor.

*note that NOx refers to nitric oxide (NO) as well as the aforementioned nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) (European Environment Agency)

🏭 This shouldn’t come as a surprise since Indonesia generates over half of its power supply from coal-fired power plants (IEA, 2022).

As you can see, air pollution is a complex issue that requires careful analysis of the data in order to truly solve. If you’re curious to dive deeper 🤿, we’d recommend the two following sources:

1. The Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA)’s research “Work From Home (WFH) and other gimmicks cannot clear Jakarta’s air”

2. Vital Strategies & Institut Teknologi Bandung’s research “Identifying the Main Sources of Air Pollution in Jakarta: A Source Apportionment Study”

📰 Now that we have a basic understanding of the issue at hand, let’s take a look at some recent news…

📢 Shout-out to Bicara Udara!

👏🏻 Kudos to Bicara Udara—an Indonesian community movement advocating for healthier air—for helping us to compile these sources. This newsletter wouldn’t be possible without them!

🗞️ Recent News

👍🏻 Good News

🏭 The Indonesian Ministry of the Environment recently closed down a charcoal factory in Jakarta (CNN, 24 August 2023)

📜 The Indonesian Ministry of Health recently enacted official guidelines for managing exposure to air pollution (Kemkes, 28 August 2023)

⚖️ Indonesian member of the House of Representatives suggested to form a special committee on air pollution (CNN, 31 August 2023)

👎🏻 Bad News

🔝 Jakarta was named the world’s “most polluted” city given plunging air quality (Mongabay, 17 August 2023)

🙅🏻‍♂️ Indonesia’s Ministry of the Environment denied reports that Jakarta has the worst air pollution in the world (Tempo, 14 August 2023)

📈 Indonesia’s per capita coal emissions are growing faster than any G20 country (Eco-Business, 5 September 2023)

⛔ The government’s responses to air pollution have not worked (BBC, 2 September 2023)…

📢 Other Voices

We also wanted to shout-out other voices that have spoken out about this issue:

1. 🎢 “The Ups and Downs of Jakarta Air Pollution Handling” by Debora Laksmi Indraswari (Kompas, 24 August 2023)

2. 🪞 “Smoke and Mirrors in the City of Smog” by Edward Speirs (NOW! Jakarta, 25 August 2023)

3. 🧑🏻‍⚕️ “Resuscitating a suffocating Jakarta—a thesis for investing in climate software” by Aktsa Effendy (DealStreetAsia, 1 September 2023)

🥁 And without further ado, the featured voice of this issue…

🎙️ Interview with Piotr of Nafas

💡 Why were you initially inspired to tackle the air pollution issue?

🛵 After my stint as CMO of Gojek, I knew that my next thing would be in climate; however, I wasn’t quite sure which industry yet, so I started researching everything from renewable energy to EVs to air pollution.

😱 As part of my air pollution research, I started measuring air quality at my house—my wife and I had selected a house because of the awesome garden, thinking that it would be our oasis of safety from Jakarta’s toxic air… It turned out that the garden had zero impact on air quality, and what’s worse is that it was almost exactly the same inside.

🤝 At this point in time, Nathan Roestandy (my co-founder whom I had gone to the same school with) and I had reconnected around this issue, and the framework for Nafas born.

🛠️ How exactly is Nafas solving it?

📊 Nafas is building Indonesia’s first end-to-end air quality ecosystem, we’re combining indoor and outdoor air quality data to fulfil our mission in helping people breathe healthier by reducing their consumption of this air pollution.

💭 The way we think about the healthy air we breathe needs to change—it needs to be more accessible. Thus, our mission is to make access to healthy air quality easier and cheaper.

🫰🏻 Why easier? Data drives habits. We make the user experience around “breathing healthy” simple: we tell you when it’s good or bad to be outside, and have made turning air quality healthy in buildings into a simple data-driven service.

💵 Why cheaper? Access to healthy air is expensive and complex. Current devices on the market cost $1,000 with a $200 filter every 3 months. It’s also unclear whether these products are actually of sufficient quality and functioning correctly.

🧑🏻‍🔬 We also support research and provide information needed to inform the appropriate policies for tackling air pollution.

❌ What is one misconception about air pollution that you’d like readers to know?

🪄 There is no silver bullet nor one magical switch that will turn off pollution.

🌫️ Everything is contributing to it: factories, cars, power plants, ports, construction, ships, agricultural burning, etc. Air pollution is a systemic problem, meaning that the entire ecosystem needs to change.

🤒 Our cities are sick. And what do we do when we are sick? We head to the doctor to run tests to figure out the root cause of our issues. In the air pollution world this is called a source apportionment study, in which we can literally take each particle of PM2.5 that contributes to a given city’s air pollution problem and figure out exactly where it is coming from. This root cause information allows policymakers to determine the cost and benefits of reducing various sources.

👉🏻 Until this is done, our world will be reduced to pointing fingers at each other to lay blame on a problem that is now putting thousands of kids in the hospital.

🎬 What actions can readers take now to support your cause?

1. 🧑🏻‍🏫 LEARN about the problem: There are plenty of misconceptions around that give us a false sense of security, so please make sure to get as informed about the issue as possible. You can follow Nafas on Instagram/Twitter or read through the articles that we have published on our Blog and in our App.

2. 🔽 REDUCE your exposure to pollution: start making adjustments to your own lifestyle to reduce your own exposure to air pollution particles. Use an app like Nafas to make decisions on your day-to-day life: is it safe to exercise and/or let the kids play outdoors? If you need to be outside, wear an N95 mask. If you can be inside, make sure the indoor air quality is good. If you can only afford 1 air purifier, put it in your bedroom (you’re there for 1/3 of the day).

3. 🗣️ SPEAK up to policymakers: Elections in Indonesia are right around the corner—there’s no reason this shouldn’t be on the agenda. Make your voice heard not just about the policy but about its enforcement. Trash burning has been illegal in Jakarta since Jokowi signed the policy into law in 2013, yet it still happens regularly.

🦸🏻 What do you do when you’re not saving the world?

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 As much as possible I try to spend time with my wife and two daughters. Starting a family has been one of the most amazing and life-changing stages of my own life; it constantly challenges me to become a better husband, father as well as a steward for their future.

Thanks for reading our 1st issue of Climate starts with SEA🌏! We hope that you can now breathe a little easier, perhaps after purchasing a Nafas Aria purifier.

In the meantime, stay tuned for our 2nd issue next weekend, which will feature a problem that’s trashier than Florida Man news.

🌊 SEA you next week!

Karina & Massimiliano

P.S. do you have any feedback for us? Feel free to email us at [email protected]19