In September 2021, an Indonesian court found the Central and Greater Jakarta governments guilty of not doing enough to protect people from air pollution and ordered them to install monitoring stations and other measures to improve the capital’s air. The landmark court case was filed by residents of Greater Jakarta in 2019, who used data from the Air Quality Life Index (AQLI) as evidence that air pollution in the region was cutting short the lives of residents.
The ruling came just days after the AQLI released its latest data showing that in Jakarta, a city that is home to more than 11 million people, the average resident will live 5.5 years less if the situation remains unchanged. Media reporting on the court case amplified this data, including several top Indonesian outlets such as Bisnis Indonesia, which shares its content with Bloomberg and the Chinese news agency Xinhua. The AQLI’s director, Ken Lee, appeared on BBC to speak on the importance of action in Indonesia. And, an editorial in the Jakarta Post, the largest English daily, used the AQLI data to further emphasize a call for change.
BBC interviews AQLI Director Ken Lee about the ruling
In a landmark decision, the court ordered monitoring stations and other measures to improve the capital’s air.
The lawsuit was filed by residents in 2019 and the verdict has since been postponed several times.
Air pollution is reducing Jakarta residents’ life expectancy by 5.5 years, US researchers say.
Persistent smog in the city of 10 million people is caused by heavy traffic and coal-fired power plants that have not been fitted with filters.
The district court has instructed Mr Widodo to improve the national standard of air quality, adding that the provincial government must conduct checks such as periodical emission tests for older vehicles in Jakarta and outdoor air quality tests.
This information must be made public, the court said.
Frustrated residents worried about the impact on health launched the legal action against President Widodo, the environment ministry, Jakarta’s governor and others.
One of the plaintiffs, researcher Khalisah Khalid, said she had participated because her 10-year-old son suffered frequent nosebleeds as well as allergies.
“This is the background. I want my child to be able to live a healthier life, get clean and healthy air,” she told BBC Indonesian.
“I’m sure all parents, all mothers, want their children to be able to grow and develop… in a clean and healthy environment.”
Another plaintiff said the court ruling was a good start.
“The government breathes the very same air so we hope they are now aware of it and make progressive measures to make our air cleaner,” said Veronica, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.
Jakarta’s particulate pollution levels are six times the World Health Organization’s guideline level, according to the University of Chicago’s Air Quality Life Index.
An Indonesian court on Thursday found government figures including President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan to have neglected the air quality in the nation’s congested and polluted capital.
The air pollution in Jakarta, where PM2.5 levels are constantly higher than World Health Organization standards, is seen by experts as reducing life expectancy and hurting the nation’s economy.
The judges for the civil lawsuit at the Central Jakarta District Court ordered Widodo to “tighten the national air quality standard to protect the health of humans, the environment and the ecosystem — including the health of the sensitive population.”
They also said other defendants — including the environment minister, the health minister and the home affairs minister — committed “unlawful deeds” in regards to “worsening air quality that threatens the health of millions of residents and has contributed to premature deaths and various illnesses.”
Before giving their verdict, the judges said they considered arguments that the government has violated people’s rights to healthy living guaranteed by Indonesia’s constitution, as well as laws on human rights and environmental protection.
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“In Indonesia, the primary cause [of PM2.5] is not meteorological conditions, or the weather, or the length of the dry season, it is the burning of fossil fuels,” Kenneth Lee, director of Air Quality Life Index at the University of Chicago, said in an online press conference in early September. “There’s currently about 10 power plants that are within a hundred-kilometer radius of Jakarta. And these plants are allowed to emit 3-7.5 times more pollution, particulate matter than Chinese coal-fired power plants.”
According to Lee, the current PM2.5 levels will reduce that the average life expectancy of Indonesians by 2.5 years compared to air pollution levels meeting WHO standards. He said the figure was five to six years lower in Jakarta on average.
Since 2000, Indonesia’s air pollution has been roughly three to four times greater than the World Health Organization’s guideline. Today, 93 percent of the country’s 262 million people—four out of every five Indonesians—live in areas exceeding that guideline. And, their life expectancies are shorter because of it. Without swift policy action to reduce particulate air pollution to the WHO guideline, Indonesians will see their lives cut short by 2.5 years on average—making air pollution the greatest risk to human health in Indonesia. By comparison, first-hand cigarette smoke reduces life expectancy in Indonesia by about 1.9 years, while child and maternal malnutrition reduces life expectancy by one year. Without change, the total current Indonesia population will lose about 643 million life-years to particulate pollution.
“Air pollution is a significant problem in Indonesia, as it is throughout much of Southeast Asia and beyond,” says Ken Lee, the director of the AQLI. “It is important for people to recognize the pollution burden and the impact it is having on their lives in order to encourage tangible policy changes.”
Some parts of Indonesia could see a far greater impact on life expectancy if air pollution levels persist without policy action. In Jakarta, a city that is home to more than 11 million people, the average resident will live 5.5 years less if the situation remains unchanged. The air quality in Bandung, the capital city of West Java, is even worse. If Bandung’s pollution levels are sustained, the average person would live 6.5 years less. In Kota Bogor, Indonesia’s most polluted city, the average person is expected to lose roughly 7 years of life expectancy.
Air pollution is a more recent problem on the islands of Sumatra and Kalimantan. In fact, over the past two decades, particulate pollution in Sumatra has doubled, causing the impact of air pollution on life expectancy to rise drastically from 0.7 to 2.4 years. South Sumatra city-dwellers in Palembang will lose 4.5 years on average. Likewise, Kalimantan’s air quality has gone from meeting the WHO guideline in 1998 to exceeding it by nearly three times, resulting in 1.9 lost life years if current levels persist.
Outside of the city-state of Singapore, where residents stand to lose 3.8 years of life expectancy, Indonesia is the most polluted country in Southeast Asia and the fifth most polluted in the world behind India, China, Bangladesh and Pakistan. That said, air pollution is still a major concern in Southeast Asia’s metropolises such as Ho Chi Minh City, where residents could see their lives cut short by 2.4 years, and Bangkok, where residents could lose 1.5 years off their lives if pollution levels persist.
“As countries like Indonesia confront the dual challenges of growing the economy while protecting public health and the environment, the AQLI can help show the damage caused by pollution and justify strong policies to address it,” says Lee. “We’ve already seen how pollution policies can have a real impact on people’s lives.”
China, for example, has made tremendous progress reducing its pollution since declaring a “war against pollution,” with cities cutting particulate pollution by almost 30 percent—improving life expectancy by 1.4 years if the reductions persist. If Indonesia were to make the same reduction in pollution, its residents could live a year longer.
Menurut majelis hakim, dalam sidang yang dipantau oleh BBC News Indonesia pada Kamis (20/05), ada berkas-berkas yang belum lengkap sehingga perlu waktu untuk mempelajari berkas-berkasnya. Sidang kemudian ditunda sampai 10 Juni 2021.
Kuasa hukum penggugat, Ayu Ezra Tiara, mengungkapkan ini adalah kali kedua sidang pembacaan putusan ditunda. “Penundaan pertama tiga minggu, [penundaan] sekarang juga tiga minggu,” ujar dia.
Sedangkan Yudi Aryanto dari Kementerian Lingkungan Hidup dan Kehutanan yang mewakili salah satu pihak tergugat mengatakan bahwa pihaknya siap menunggu putusan majelis hakim.
“Kalau putusan, ranahnya kan di majelis hakim. Jadi kami para pihak menyerahkan ke majelis saja,” ujarnya.
Gugatan soal polusi udara Jakarta itu diajukan oleh Koalisi Ibu Kota ke Pengadilan Negeri Jakarta Pusat pada 4 Juli 2019. Mereka menggugat tujuh pihak, yaitu Presiden Joko Widodo, Menteri Lingkungan Hidup dan Kehutanan, Menteri Kesehatan, Menteri Dalam Negeri, Gubernur DKI Jakarta, Gubernur Jawa Barat, dan Gubernur Banten
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Berdasarkan data Air Quality Life Index yang disajikan Energy Policy Institute, Universitas Chicago, tahun 2020, Indonesia adalah negara paling tercemar kesembilan di dunia.
Menurut laporan itu, polusi udara dapat memperpendek harapan hidup rata-rata orang Indonesia sebanyak dua tahun, dan di wilayah paling tercemar sebanyak tujuh tahun.
Di Jakarta, tingkat polusi disebut enam kali lipat dari pedoman WHO, dan jika hal itu terus terjadi, angka harapan hidup warga Jakarta bisa berkurang sebanyak 4,8 tahun.
Pihak penggugat berharap dapat memenangkan perkara ini agar pemerintah dapat menerbitkan regulasi yang menjamin perlindungan kesehatan warga Negara.
Pollution from nearby coal-fired power plants is choking the citizens of Jakarta, slashing years off their life expectancy, and turning the city into one of the most polluted capitals in the world, a new report shows.
The U.S. Embassy’s monitoring stations, which track levels of harmful PM2.5 particles in the air, recorded 172 days with unhealthy air quality in 2019 — nearly half the year. That was up from 101 days in 2018.
A new report by the think-tank Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) shows that the congregation of coal plants surrounding Jakarta contributes to this worsening air quality.
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Reducing air pollution in Jakarta and its surroundings to meet the WHO guideline would result in tremendous health benefits, according to the Air Quality Life Index (AQLI), a metric developed by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC) that converts particulate air pollution into its impact on life expectancy.
The index shows that 11 million residents of Jakarta would gain an average of 4.8 years in life expectancy if particulate pollution met the WHO guideline. In the West Java cities of Bogor, Bandung and Bekasi, and the Banten city of South Tangerang, residents would gain about 5 years.
The AQLI data is in line with recent air quality research done by Duke University and NASA, which found that reducing air pollution in the U.S. saves more money than it costs. The benefits gained from avoided deaths, avoided health care spending, and increased labor productivity amount to more than $700 billion per year, the researchers estimate. Coupled with the fact that clean energy has gotten cheaper, this should be more than enough financial justification to pay for the energy transition, advocates say.
Indonesian people risk having their life expectancy shaved off by four years on average due to exposure to dangerous particulate matter caused by the haze from forest fires, according to the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago.
Almost every year, toxic haze caused by wildfires engulfs vast parts of Sumatra and Kalimantan, filling the lungs of millions of people living in these areas, the Jakarta Post reported.
The fires typically occur as a result of slash and burn practices to clear land for oil palm or pulpwood plantations. As of September 20, there were 5,086 fire hotspots recorded in Indonesia and 328,724 hectares of land burned, according the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB).
In Central Kalimantan’s capital city of Palangkaraya, home to over 280,000 people, the air quality index (AQI) on September 16 was reported at the hazardous level of 452, according to AirVisual. Thus hundreds of thousands of people are exposed to high levels of unhealthy particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 microns (PM2.5) or less.
This level of exposure to toxic air puts people in Riau and Kalimantan provinces at high risk of developing acute respiratory syndrome, an infection caused by inhaling unsafe levels of particulate matter in the air.
A new study found that air pollution not only causes respiratory infections, but also potentially shortens life expectancy. This is the case in Indonesia, a nation that recently received the title of worst air pollution in the world.
According to the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago’s Air Quality Life Index (AQLI), air pollution has reduced the average Indonesian’s life expectancy by 1.2 years. Jakartans in particular should expect a decrease of 2.3 years in life expectancy if exposed to current levels of air pollution throughout their lives. Of all the islands, Sumatrans have it the worst, with a projected decrease of 5.6 years.
“As countries navigate the dual challenges of sustaining economic growth and protecting the environment and public health, the AQLI shows not only the damage caused by pollution but also the gains that can be made with policies to address it,” Michael Greenstone, the University of Chicago professor who created the index with his colleagues, said in his report.
In this experiment, Greenstone and his colleagues based their research on previous natural experiments, allowing them to focus on the effects of air pollution on human health independently from other factors like lifestyle and diet. He then combined this method with results from hyperlocalized particulate pollution monitors, allowing him to measure air quality even in small cities.
The AQLI shows that in the past two decades, air pollution has become increasingly life-threatening to Indonesians. Between 1998 and 2016, pollution concentration increased by 171 percent, placing Indonesia among the top 20 nations in the world with the worst air pollution. In 2016, 80 percent of all Indonesians lived in areas with average particulate pollution levels exceeding WHO standards.
The detrimental conclusion of this study comes as no surprise to many Indonesians. The negative effects of air pollution exceed those of smoking, war, and contagious diseases like tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.
But the report isn’t entirely pessimistic, stating that if Indonesia were to follow China’s footsteps in improving its air quality, “the typical Indonesian could expect to live eight months longer.”
The end of the Ramadan fasting period is marked by a week-long holiday in Indonesia. In Jakarta, this means that almost half the population leave the city to travel back to their hometowns and villages to celebrate Idul Fitri with their families.
Usually, this exodus is marked by a noticeable improvement in Jakarta’s air quality, with clear blue skies appearing as the road traffic all but disappears.
This year, however, on 4 June, one day before the Idul Fitri holiday, Jakarta had the worst air quality in the world, according to AirVisual, an air quality monitoring app. With an Air Quality Index (AQI) of 210, Indonesia’s capital easily ranked above other notoriously polluted cities, such as Beijing, Dubai, and New Delhi.
An AQI is measured based on five pollutants: particulate matter (PM), sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, and ozone. Anything above 100 is considered “unhealthy”, while scores over 200 – looking at you, Jakarta – are “very unhealthy.”
Air quality isn’t a new problem for Indonesia, of course. Jakarta’s air has been heavily polluted for years. In 2017, the US Embassy’s air monitoring stations – located on the rooftops of the US Embassy in Central Jakarta and the Ambassador’s residence in South Jakarta – recorded just 26 days where the air quality could be deemed “good”. Most of these were during the wet season, when heavy monsoonal rains clear the skies and tamp down dust. In the first half of 2019, just 10 days of healthy air have been recorded so far.
In fact, research from the University of Chicago shows that Jakarta’s air quality is now so bad that it’s cutting 2.3 years off the average resident’s lifespan. “High air pollution is undermining Indonesians’ health,” researchers from the university’s Energy Policy Centre told Phys.Org.
