In the past decade, the World Bank's support to improve air quality across Europe and Central Asia has grown exponentially. Nearly $800 million is being planned to be invested under air quality management (AQM) projects across the region. Behind this impressive growth lies a story of strong analytics, robust collaboration with client countries and across sectors, and integrated solutions to achieve impactful economic, environmental, and climate outcomes.
Yet, the path from robust AQM analytics and ambitious targets to results can be fraught with challenges, uncertainties, and tradeoffs. Organized by the World Bank's Environment, Natural Resources, and Blue Economy (ENB); Energy and Extractives; Transport; and Urban, Disaster Risk Management, Resilience and Land Global Practices in Europe and Central Asia, this learning event marks the U.N. International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies. It showcases some of the World Bank's projects in the region and presents progress, lessons learned, challenges, and opportunities in scaling up support for clean air from targets to results.