CREA: WFH Cannot Clean Jakarta's Air

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) said the work-from-home (WFH) measures taken by the provincial government of Jakarta since August 21 cannot clear the air from pollution.

The independent research organization mentioned that the rising air pollution in the province is caused by emissions from several sectors such as power plants, industry, transportation, and open land burning.

Additionally, air pollution is an amalgamation of local emissions and the long-term pollutants from fossil-fuel vehicles of several neighboring provinces.

"Jakarta needs a regional regulation to tackle all the biggest sources of emissions instead of focusing on the small parts of the problem at hand," CREA mentioned.

CREA compared the current level of pollution to back when there was minimal mobility due to the pandemic. The data shows that there was no significant decrease in the level of air pollution during lockdown.

Another evidence that mobility is not the main culprit for air pollution is the disparity between the 45% decline in traffic during the weekends with the small 4% decrease in PM2.5 pollution.

In addition, public transportation is not affected by the WFH policy or the traffic during the weekends. Thus, transportation is not the only source of air pollution in Jakarta.

CREA believes that the majority of emissions from the transportation sector originated from outside of Jakarta. Meanwhile, private vehicles in Jakarta become the scapegoat for air pollution. 

According to CREA, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry is using this situation to shift the public's focus from their failure to systemically manage the main source of pollution at the regional level. "The ministry ignores the contribution of coal plants towards the rising air pollution."

CREA added that their mapping from the July to August 2023 period shows that there is a connection between the level of air pollution and the emissions from various coal plants outside of Jakarta.

Coal plants' contribution to PM2.5 pollution varies each day from 5 percent to 31 percent.

Jakarta is surrounded by dozens of coal plants at a 100-kilometer range. CREA utilized the HYSPLIT model to map the coal plants' contribution which allows for almost real-time data.

MARIA FRANSISCA LAHUR

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