and North Africa, by Economy, 2010

Beirut’s residential areas that experienced frequent waste burning episodes in their vicinity experienced severe increases in PM concentrations (Baalbaki et al. 2016). Translating these effects into health effects, the authors estimate that the short-term cancer risk on days when waste was burned increased twentyfold. Half the region’s economies burn more than the world average on a per capita basis (figure 3.24).

Tackling the issue of municipal waste burning consists of setting up strict enforcement mechanisms and providing the means to properly dispose of waste. However, simply banning the practice combined with penalties for noncompliance may not be effective if the compliance and enforcement strategies are not prepared and effectively executed. This requires rigorous staff training and investment in infrastructure to enable authorities to effectively enforce those bans. It also requires information campaigns to inform residents about the adverse effects of their behavior.

Investing in SWM and adopting the principles of a circular economy are crucial to managing municipal waste burning. Presenting residents with a viable alternative to burning their waste crucially includes a strengthening of waste management services, which are still poorly developed in many economies of the Middle East and North Africa.29 Hence, investment in proper waste management systems is imperative. The issue of weak SWM also relates to marine-plastic debris, where

FIGURE 3.24

Municipal Waste Burned Per Capita in the Middle East and North Africa, by Economy, 2010

Waste burned per capita (kg/year) 400

300

200

100

0 DjiboutiAlgeria Egypt, Arab Rep.Iran, Islamic Rep.Bahrain LebanonIraq KuwaitJordan MoroccoLibya Oman Yemen, Rep.United Arab EmiratesSyrian Arab Republic Saudi Arabia West Bank and GazaTunisiaQatar

Source: Based on Wiedinmyer, Yokelson, and Gullett 2014. Note: The orange line denotes world average. kg = kilogram.

inadequately disposed waste is one of the main culprits that lead to large flows of plastic entering the sea. Strengthening these systems and pushing for the adoption of circular economy principles therefore have the potential to address the adverse effects of poor waste management across issues. The inadequacy of the SWM system, reasons for this inadequacy, and propositions for how to resolve this issue are presented in more detail in chapter 4, where the principles of a circular economy are also illustrated. This concept is important to reduce the amount of waste that arises in the first place, which has ramifications for the amount of waste that is burned and pollutes the region’s air.

The burning of agricultural waste is prevalent in some of the region’s economies and contributes to poor air quality. Burning of (agricultural) waste, mostly in the form of crop residues, organic household waste, and the like, has always been a common practice in rural areas in Lebanon (Baalbaki et al. 2016). Every ton of rice straw burned produces emissions of 3 kg of PM; 60 kg of CO; 1,460 kg of CO2; 199 kg of dust; and 2 kg of SO2 (Rosmiza et al. 2014)—all of which can lead to various respiratory diseases and cancer. An important regional example is the “black cloud” season in autumn, when the burning of rice straws increased air pollution significantly in Cairo (Aboel Fetouh et al. 2013).

Emissions due to burning of crop residues are high in certain economies of the Middle East and North Africa, indicating the prevalence of this practice there (figure 3.25). The Islamic Republic of Iran and countries in North Africa show the highest emissions, in terms of tons of CO2 per 100,000 people, stemming from the burning of crop residues, followed by Syria and Iraq. Countries in the GCC generally have lower emissions. Air pollution due to agriculture is a localized phenomenon; consequently, the burden associated with it is not spread out evenly across a country.

Air pollution reduces agricultural yields and in the process threatens an important source of income for low-income households. The adverse effects of rising temperatures caused by climate change on agricultural yields has been extensively investigated and validated by a host of scientific studies. However, air pollutants were also found to be detrimental to the productivity of farm plots by decreasing radiation and by changing temperature and precipitation patterns.

Emissions of black carbon (a component of PM) and ozone reduced wheat yields by around 36 percent in India from 1980 to 2010 relative to a situation absent of climate and air pollutant emission trends (Burney and Ramanathan 2014). The overwhelming fraction of losses were due to air pollutants rather than climate pollutants. Similarly, in China, elevated PM2.5 concentrations had a significant adverse effect on average yields of wheat and corn from 2001 to 2010 (Zhou, Chen, and Tian 2018).

Addressing regional and local air pollution could have a more immediate positive effect on agricultural yields than the abatement of climate