Earth Now | What does it take to tackle air pollution?
From emissions at busy ports to pollution from industry, traffic, heating and dust, improving air quality means tackling a complex mix of sources. In Turkey and Uzbekistan, different approaches are being taken to reduce emissions and better understand the air people breathe.
Air pollution is one of the world's largest environmental health risks. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that outdoor air pollution contributed to 4.2 million premature deaths in 2019, with fine particulate matter linked to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases and cancers.
Its sources, however, vary widely from place to place. In Turkey, efforts to reduce emissions from vessels operating near densely populated coastlines are turning towards electrification. In landlocked Uzbekistan, pollution comes from a combination of heating, transport and industry, alongside dust and weather conditions that can worsen air quality.
Reducing emissions close to shore
Shipping carries much of global trade, but conventional marine fuels produce pollutants including nitrogen oxides, sulphur oxides and particulate matter.
While attention often falls on large cargo ships travelling between continents, smaller vessels such as tugboats, ferries and pilot boats spend much of their working lives near ports and coastal communities.
“The vast majority of the ports are inside the cities, so these are also very important for the community health,” said Mehtap Karahalla Özdemir, Secretary General of the Turkish Shipbuilders' Association.
One alternative is already operating in Turkish waters: battery-powered tugboats.
Turkish shipbuilders have developed fully electric tugs with zero exhaust emissions while running on batteries charged from renewable sources. The technology is also being explored for other forms of short-distance maritime transport.
A study published in September by the International Maritime Organization examined 67 ferry operations in Turkey's Sea of Marmara and found electric or hybrid propulsion technically feasible across all of them.
But deploying the technology more widely presents other challenges, including the cost of new vessels, access to charging infrastructure and potential upgrades to electricity networks around ports.
Özdemir also pointed to financing as a barrier.
“The private sector has some abilities but unfortunately there should be a finance mechanism in order to support this transition from conventional vessels to alternative fuels, battery vehicles and other wind-assisted propulsion systems,” she said.
Tashkent's pollution comes from several directions
More than 3,000 kilometres away, the Uzbek capital faces a different mix of pollution sources.
A World Bank assessment published in 2024 found that Tashkent's annual average concentration of PM2.5 was more than six times the World Health Organization's annual guideline.
PM2.5 refers to particles with a diameter of 2.5 micrometres or less. Their small size allows them to penetrate deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream.
Among human-caused sources in Tashkent, according to the same assessment, heating contributes an estimated 28 per cent of annual PM2.5 concentrations, followed by transport at 16 per cent and industry at 13 per cent.
The picture changes throughout the year. Heating becomes particularly important during colder months, while windblown dust can become the largest source during summer. Construction dust and particles stirred up again from roads add to the problem.
Weather can also determine how pollution accumulates.
“On windless days and during temperature inversions, higher levels of pollution can be recorded,” said Hojiakbar Odilov, a chief specialist at Uzbekistan's Hydrometeorological Service Agency (UzHydromet).
That means the same level of emissions does not necessarily result in the same air quality from one day to the next.
Controlling pollution at the source
Some emissions can be addressed before they enter the atmosphere.
At UzAuto Motors Powertrain, an automotive engine plant in Tashkent, environmental manager Ozoda Shorustamova points to the dry and wet scrubbers and bag filters the plant uses to capture pollutants produced during manufacturing.
The factory has also installed an automated monitoring station that continuously measures dust emissions from part of its production process.
Similar monitoring is being introduced more widely across Uzbekistan's industrial sector.
In March, Uzbekistan launched a national Clean Air programme for 2026 to 2030. Its stated targets include reducing overall pollutant emissions by 10.5 per cent and transport emissions by 10 per cent by the end of the decade. The programme also calls for automatic monitoring and dust and gas treatment equipment at industrial facilities with a higher environmental impact.
Whether those targets translate into sustained improvements in air quality will also depend on other sources of pollution and factors that cannot be directly controlled, including wind and naturally occurring dust.
From measuring pollution to predicting it
Monitoring can provide a more detailed picture of how pollution changes across cities and over time.
UzHydromet operates fixed stations as well as mobile laboratories that can be taken to different locations to measure pollutants alongside meteorological conditions.
Industrial monitoring is expanding too. Alisher Khudoyberdiyev, a specialist at Uzbekistan's National Committee on Ecology and Climate Change, said monitoring equipment has been installed at around 600 industrial enterprises.
Researchers are now exploring another use for the growing volume of data: short-term forecasting.
Khudoyberdiyev said Uzbek and international scientists are developing a system designed to predict air quality in major cities several hours ahead. Increasing the number of monitoring points, he said, should give those forecasts more local data to draw on.
For residents, such forecasts could eventually offer something measurements alone cannot: an indication of how air quality may change in the hours ahead.
