Challenges in Bogota Air Quality: Policies and Technology

Introduction Due both its increasing emissions inventory and lack of effective environmental policies, Bogota, Colombia’s capital and largest city, has become one of the most air polluted cities in Latin America. During the last 10 years, annual concentration of PM10 has exceeded the standard in several parts of the city. The decline in the city’s air quality is explained by technological and policies issues. Even though the correlation between diesel-vehicle particulate matter emissions and the sulfur content of the fuel is widely documented, little has been done to improve the quality of the diesel fuel, in terms of its environmental performance. The current sulfur content of the diesel fuel sold in Bogota (1,200 ppm) is higher than that found in major Latin American cities. It is, however, lower than that of the diesel sold in the rest of the country – 4500 ppm -. Notwithstanding the successful implementation of the new bus-rapid-transit (BRT) system, the city’s transit bus fleet is old and oversized and responsible for more than 90% of the PM10 emissions generated by mobile sources. During a recent public transportation strike, where most of public buses not associated to the BRT system did not run, the concentration of PM10 in the city dropped 54% with respect to the same day in the previous week. This paper analyses the gaps in the air quality management strategies in Bogota and recommends the steps to fill such gaps, based on the opportunities given by the public awareness to the problem, the state of local scientific knowledge and the current political will to finally curb air pollution.