During March 2017, the metropolitan area of the Aburra Valley, where Medellin (Colombia) is located, experienced critical air quality episodes that exceeded the air quality standard of PM2.5 for several days. The problem caught the attention of policy makers and academicians. EfD Colombia through its Research Group on Environmental, Natural Resource and Applied Economics Studies (REES) organized a seminar (April 3d) and a meeting (April 4th) with the environmental authorities to discuss the implementation of the warning system and the effectiveness of the transport policies to address the bad air quality events. These activities were organized by Clara Villegas, Sergio Orrego and Santiago Arango affiliated to Universidad Nacional – Medellin, members of REES.
EfD- Colombia Center Director, Jorge Bonilla, Assistant Professor at Universidad de los Andes – Bogotá where REES is hosted, discussed the effectiveness of different transport policies implemented in Colombia and other countries to deal with emissions and congestion. The title of the presentation was: “The effect of transport policies on congestion and pollution”. Seminar participants included PhD students in energy and system dynamics from the engineering program, master students in environmental economics and development, transport engineering students, and professors of the Universidad Nacional at Medellín who are involved in the project of identification of mitigation and adaptation strategies in the Aburra Valley. The talk raised the awareness on the air pollution problems and the need for actions to improve air quality.
The April 4th meeting centered the discussion on the warning system for bad air quality, future collaborations for conducting research around the pollution problems and possible policy solutions. Important policy makers like the Sub-direction of Environmental Quality of the Metropolitan area of the Aburra Valley participated in the meeting.
For more information about the event please click here.