EPA-Integrated Environmental Strategies

"The IES program promotes integrated planning to address local environmental concerns and also reduce associated global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The program encourages developing countries to analyze and implement policy, technology, and infrastructure measures with multiple public health, economic, and environmental benefits. To date, government agencies and research institutions in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, India, Mexico, the Philippines, and South Korea have participated in the IES program.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has supported the IES projects in India and the Philippines. The U.S Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) provides technical support for the program as well."

Goals

"There are several goals and objectives of the IES program:

• Provide tools and approaches to help analyze and quantify environmental (air quality and associated GHG), public health, and economic co-benefits in major developing countries
• Improve analytical methods for co-benefits analysis
• Provide the information necessary for consideration of global issues in local energy and environmental policy initiatives
• Build expertise in integrated energy and environmental analysis
• Promote local support for the implementing measures and policies with multiple benefits"

Country Programs

Argentina

"Work on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) IES project in Buenos Aires, Argentina, began in October 2000. The objective of the IES project was to quantify the health benefits from reducing particulate matter (PM) due to specific measures to improve air quality and reducing greenhouse gases (GHGs), especially focusing on the transportation sector. The project also aimed to raise awareness and improve technical capabilities in analyzing and implementing integrated strategies."

Brazil

"The overall objective of the IES-Brazil project, initiated in 1998, was to establish a framework for developing, analyzing, and implementing integrated, environmentally sustainable policies for the São Paulo Metropolitan Region, with particular focus on the transport sector. This framework was created to supply decision-makers with stronger policy instruments to simultaneously address local, regional, and global environmental issues based on technical, economic, and social criteria. The IES-Brazil team completed the project in July 2004."

Chile

"United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in partnership with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory is collaborating with Chile under the Integrated Environmental Strategies program in March 1999. The objectives of the project were to aid government officials and other stakeholders in understanding the air pollution reduction benefits of clean energy technologies that have the added benefit of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and to build in-country capacity to conduct co-benefits analysis of integrated measures. NREL served as the U.S. Technical lead for this project."

China

"The IES-China program began in early 1999 as an assessment of energy options and health impacts in Shanghai, the final report of which was released in 2001. EPA originally supported this effort through a partnership with the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the China Council of International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED), and the work was conducted in consultation with China’s State Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA)."

India

"The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)/India Mission and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) launched the IES-India project in February 2002. The team selected the city of Hyderabad, a city of 6 million people in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, as the project site. Hyderabad is known for its emerging high-tech industry and its rapid growth in the past decade. Key government officials in the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Central Pollution Control Board, Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board (APPCB), and the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad supported the IES effort and participated in a February 2002 scoping meeting that identified specific project objectives, which were to:

Provide policymakers with quantified information on the public health, environmental, and economic impacts of selected integrated measures to improve ambient air quality.

Engage policymakers and other key stakeholders in a discussion on the benefits of an integrated approach to addressing environmental problems.

Build support among key stakeholders, including public officials, businesses, nongovernmental organizations, and civic organizations, for the effective implementation of promising measures.

Build capacity in Hyderabad and India for multidisciplinary policy analysis.

In 2003, the Supreme Court of India directed several states to produce action plans to combat rapidly increasing air pollution and related widespread respiratory disease. To provide additional scientific backing for the Hyderabad Action Plan, the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board embarked on a source apportionment study in Hyderabad to examine the sources of PM identified in the original inventory and additional sources not included in the original inventory."

Mexico

"Work on the IES-Mexico program in Mexico City began in February 2002. The initial project was designed to improve analysis of measures under consideration in PROAIRE, the Metropolitan Environmental Commission’s (CAM) set of policy measures for addressing local air quality in the Mexico City Metropolitan Area (MCMA) from 2002-2010, and add consideration of associated greenhouse gases (GHGs) to that analysis.

Subsequent IES-Mexico activities have extended this work to explore measures beyond PROAIRE and beyond the MCMA. Now in its fourth phase of work, the goals of IES-Mexico continue to include the following:

Building capacity in Mexico for integrated environmental and economic assessment using quantitative tools.

Using quantitative tools to estimate the integrated benefits of relevant policy and technology measures impacting emissions of GHGs.

Providing results and tools with relevance to the decision-making process regarding emissions controls in Mexico to policymakers."

Philippines

"The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)/Philippines Mission and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) launched the IES-Philippines project in February 2003. The project focused on identifying and analyzing alternative transportation measures for Metro Manila that would reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and improve air quality and public health. The goal was to provide policymakers and other stakeholders with quantified data on the health, environmental, and economic impacts of selected measures in the transportation sector, and to build support and capacity for integrated policy analysis."

South Korea

"The IES-Republic of Korea program, initiated in February 1999, is a collaboration among the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Republic of Korea’s Ministry of Environment, the Korean Environment Institute (KEI), and the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL). The objective of the program is to assess and quantify the environmental and public health benefits resulting from integrated measures to reduce greenhouse gases (GHGs) and local air pollution. The program enhances in-country capacity to conduct co-benefits analysis and assists with policy evaluation for integrated planning.

Two IES-Republic of Korea projects have been conducted to date, and a third project is in the planning stages. The first project applied a bottom-up impact analysis approach to evaluate the benefits from integrated mitigation policies and measures in the metropolitan area of Seoul, Korea. The second project evaluated the health and GHG impacts from the Seoul Air Quality Management Plan, and compared them with the expected health and GHG impacts from selected GHG reduction measures. Results from the second IES-Republic of Korea project were released in mid-2007."