About Us

The Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities (CAI-Asia) Center, with the support of the Global Atmospheric Pollution Forum, developed the CitiesACT portal as online resource for policy makers and other stakeholders. The name reflects the important role that cities play in the global environment, and that cities must act together to ensure that air quality management topics are not isolated from the larger issues of climate change, clean energy, and sustainable urban transport.

The project was first announced in a special side event held on the second day of CAI-Asia's Regional Dialogue Meeting in Bangkok, Thailand held in January 2008.

CitiesACT is a free online resource of up-to-date, measurable, quantitative air quality and GHG related data. The portal aims to provide Asian countries and cities, and other stakeholder groups working with them, with the information to design policies and programs to address air pollution and climate change in an integrated manner. The CAI-Asia Center will enter to strategic partnerships with external organizations to ensure the timeliness, quality, and integrity of data and information at the country and city level.

• Drivers and pressures of air pollution and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, including population growth, urbanization, motorization, and energy use



• Status of urban air pollution and GHG emissions, such as total emissions for air pollutants and GHG emissions (where available) as well as concentrations of air pollutants



• Health, environmental, and economic impacts of urban air pollution: health and environmental (crops and corrosion), as well as economic costs



• Responses to air pollution and climate change, especially national and local government policies, as well as actions on the ground (organizations, projects and programs, and training courses)

CitiesACT is being developed in consultation with potential data providers and data users. In August 2008, the CAI-Asia Center met with several US-based organizations to learn how they manage their respective databases and to explore how their data can be integrated into the CitiesACT portal. These include the Health Effects Institute (HEI), the US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA); Carbon Monitoring for Action (CARMA) project of the Center for Global Development; the Development Gateway Foundation; the World Bank; and the World Resources Institute. These organizations were all receptive to idea of an online portal that would integrate quantitative and qualitative data from authoritative sources.