On July 17th, 2018, the Director of the Colombian Institute for Hidrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies (IDEAM in Spanish) presented at Universidad de Los Andes the air quality report for Colombia for the year 2017, and the guide for the elaboration of the atmospheric emissions inventory. The Colombian Viceminister of Environment participated in this event with a presentation on the technical and normative challenges in the elaboration of an atmospheric emissions inventory. The Dean of the economics department, Juan Camilo Cárdenas, who is also EfD Colombia senior researcher, opened the event and remarked the importance of increasing the dialogue between researchers and policy makers on environmental aspects.
Jorge Bonilla, EfD Colombia Director and senior researcher, made a presentation about why air quality issues are important for the people. After the presentations, Bonilla participated in a discussion panel with representatives of the National Planning Department, IDEAM and civil organizations about the short run measures to improve air quality. Panelists discussed the importance of making a clear differentiation between measures that restrict particular cars that use gasoline and the measures that restrict the transit of cars that use diesel as fuel. This clear distinction between these measures will provide inputs to evaluate their effectiveness in controlling air pollution.