christahasenkopf.bsky.social
I 💜 opening up resources so more people can do more. Director, Clean Air EPIC, U Chicago. We've started the EPIC Air Quality Fund, ahhh! https://epic.uchicago.edu/area-of-focus/epic-air-quality-fund/ [email protected]
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A quick glance at @openaq.org shows that nearly 3 dozen countries will no longer have easily accessible, high quality (reference grade) air quality data.
Hearing from multiple EPIC AQ Awardees that this will be a problem, as these sources were planned to be used for calibration for their projects.
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apnews.com/article/us-a...
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Washington Post: www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...
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NBC News: www.nbcnews.com/news/world/u...
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Wired: www.wired.com/story/air-mo...
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2 - All governments share AQ data they generate in a fully transparent and accessible manner.
3 - Funders, such as development banks and philanthropies, support less-resourced governments.
4 - Funders include conditions for data transparency in funding agreements.
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And we look forward to announcing more of their cohort at the end of February! 🚀
*From the OpenAQ platform (openaq.org) or from OpenAQ’s Open Air Quality Data: The Global Landscape
**From the latest AQLI Update: aqli.epic.uchicago.edu/reports/
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➡️ Samip Sigdel - Green Decision Labs & Research (GD Labs and Research)
➡️ Sheck Abdul Sherif
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➡️ Herminio Cossa - CISM- Centro de Investigação em Saúde de Manhiça
➡️ Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences- MUBAS
➡️ Myriam Mrad - University of Balamand
➡️ Newton Matandirotya (PhD)
➡️ Ossey Yapo - Centre Ivoirien Antipollution
➡️ Ricardo Andres Pineda Guzman - Sustenta Honduras
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Congrats again to the 12 awardees:
➡️ Abid Omar - Pakistan Air Quality Initiative (پاکی) Air Quality Initiative
➡️ Abimbola Akinajo - Lamataonline
➡️ Adetoun Mustapha - Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR)
➡️ Collins Gameli HODOLI - Clean Air One Atmosphere
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We are able to support this work because of incredibly generous gifts from Open Philanthropy, Alpha Epsilon, and several individual donors. Thank you also for technical support from @openaq.org.
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🌍 👐 Open Data
▪️ # of governments currently sharing air quality data publicly of the 16 countries: 6*
▪️ # of government-related entities the Fund is supporting this round: 15
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🏛️📜 National Standards:
▪️ # of countries awardees are working in that currently have a national PM2.5 annual average standard: 3 (out of 16)**
▪️ # of countries in which awardees have a long-term goal to influence the creation of a national PM2.5 annual standard: 13
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Some stats about the 2025 EPIC AQ Fund cohort in aggregate and where they are working:
🌬️📊 Monitors:
▪️ # of government AQ monitors currently sharing fully open public data in the 16 Awardee countries: 15*
▪️ # of AQ monitors that this round of Awardees intend to launch in those 16 countries: 700+
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These 12 are the first of the 2025 cohort, which will consist of 26 incredible organizations — non-profits, companies, research institutions, and government entities. They will be working in 16 countries across Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East.
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I recently asked a clerk at our local corner store if he could please give me 50 mailboxes. We eventually reached a mutual understanding that I meant stamps. I am on day 689 of living in Germany. ☺️
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About the EPIC Air Quality Fund at the University of Chicago: epic.uchicago.edu/area-of-focu... 6/6
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We had a surge of applications to the Fund this Fall, and we are still seeking funds for a few of our highest rated applicants -- on the order of 50,000 USD per project. If you'd like to get involved in supporting local orgs to do this work in 2025, please reach out: [email protected] 5/6
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One first step we are taking at the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC) is the EPIC Air Quality Fund, which puts funding to monitor air quality directly in the hands of local organizations and governments in places dealing with high air pollution but limited resources. 4/6
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And, according to our research and interviews with local actors in Africa+elsewhere, a lot of headway can start happening for far, far less.** This represents a huge opportunity for governments, development orgs and even individual philanthropy. 3/6
**Source: epic.uchicago.edu/area-of-focu...
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While air pollution's burden on public health in Africa can be measured in billions of dollars,* improving capacity to measure air pollution across the continent is NOT a billion dollar problem - more like millions. 2/6
*Source: @cleanairfund.bsky.social: www.cleanairfund.org/news-item/af...