Iran environment department chief sets temperature challenge
The vice president and head of Iran's Department of Environment, Massoumeh Ebtekar, has invited Iranian people to take part in a temperature challenge aimed at tackling air pollution across the country.
“The 18° temperature challenge, set your thermostat at home or work to curb air pollution and fight climate change,” Ebtekar said in a post on her Twitter page on Thursday.
Following Ebtekar’s tweet, many Iranians welcomed her initiative as people in Tehran and a number of other major Iranian cities have been suffering from severe air pollution for the past 20 days.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Friday thanked Ebtekar for offering the temperature challenge and expressed his support for the initiative.
“It is necessary to tackle pollution of our own air and the environment of our children,” Zarif said on his Twitter page.
Over the past days, air pollution in Tehran prompted Iranian authorities to shut schools for four days in two separate occasions. Sporadic soft rain and light winds, however, have temporarily helped improve the situation.
On Monday, 107 Iranian lawmakers gave a written notice to President Hassan Rouhani, calling for the adoption of necessary measures to tackle the deteriorating air pollution.
The lawmakers' notice came two days after Ebtekar said the government has made great efforts to tackle air pollution but stressed that it is impossible to overcome all previous shortcomings in a short time.
Eighty percent of Tehran’s pollution is blamed on exhaust fumes emitted from five million cars in the capital.
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