About the session
Every great product starts with a human need. People don't necessarily want more technology — they want better outcomes. They don't want air-quality sensors, dashboards, or scientific reports for their own sake. They want to breathe clean air, protect their families, and live in healthier cities.
But clean air is an unusual product. Unlike an app or a physical product, it cannot be built by a single team of engineers or delivered by one organization. It depends on how an entire city operates — from energy and transport to industry, government policy, and public behaviour. No single actor controls all the factors that determine the air we breathe.
This is the central idea behind Almaty Air Initiative/Taza's approach: if we cannot build clean air directly, we can build a system that helps cities deliver it.
Developed through the experience of Almaty Air Initiative, this approach combines three interconnected capabilities: Brain — independent data, scientific research, and evidence; Voice — public understanding, engagement, and demand for change; and Bridge — connecting evidence and public needs with policymakers, businesses, and institutions capable of implementing solutions.
Technology strengthens this operating system. Taza develops different tools and products for different users — from citizens who need accessible air-quality information to policymakers who need evidence for decisions, and researchers, journalists, and businesses who need reliable data and insights. Different products serve different users, but contribute to one shared outcome: cleaner air.
Drawing on Almaty's experience and Taza's expansion into other cities, this session brings together technology leaders, scientists, policymakers, civil society, and development institutions to explore how such a system can be built, tested, improved, and scaled.
Why this session is important
8.1M
premature deaths globally each year
Air pollution causes approximately 8.1 million premature deaths globally each year, according to the State of Global Air Report and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
Scientific knowledge about air pollution has advanced significantly. Cities increasingly have access to ground-based monitoring, satellite observations, emissions data, and atmospheric modelling. Yet access to information does not automatically lead to cleaner air. The challenge is not only understanding pollution. It is translating that understanding into coordinated action across institutions, sectors, and communities.
This requires a different approach — one that combines scientific evidence, accessible technology, public engagement, policy implementation, and measurable outcomes. It also requires solutions that can be adapted and scaled across cities without recreating every capability from scratch.
The session explores how product thinking and systems thinking can help bridge this gap: moving beyond individual projects and technologies towards an integrated, scalable approach to clean air.
Sources: WHO, Ambient (outdoor) air quality and health, fact sheet (2024); McDuffie E.E. et al. (2021), “Source sector and fuel contributions to ambient PM2.5 and attributable mortality across multiple spatial scales”, Nature Communications 12, 3594, doi:10.1038/s41467-021-23853-y; WMO, Air Quality and Climate Bulletin No. 5 (September 2025).
Date and time
18 November 2026, 09:30–11:00, then media and networking until 11:15
Venue
Kazakhstan Pavilion B150, Blue Zone, COP31, Antalya, Türkiye
COP31 thematic day
Human and Social Development
Format
Keynote, evidence relay, panel session, community launch
Organisers
Almaty Air Initiative / Taza Initiative
Partners
Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Kazakhstan; Zhasyl Damu JSC
Registration
QR code on the event flyer · air.org.kz
18 November · Kazakhstan Pavilion B150, Blue Zone, COP31
09:30–09:32
Opening
Moderator Ruslan Zhemkov
09:32–09:36
Welcome remarks
Saule Sabiyeva, Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Kazakhstan
09:36–09:48
Keynote: Clean Air Is a Product Problem
Zhuldyz Saulebekova, Almaty Air Initiative / Taza Initiative
09:48–10:08
Evidence relay: what the data tells a city
Dr Aleksey Romanov · Dr Laurence Rouil · Dr Gizem Tuna Tuygun (video) · Prof. Hüseyin Toros
10:08–10:38
Panel: Who breathes the worst air, and who pays to fix it?
Martina Otto · Prof. Najat Aoun Saliba (online) · development finance and climate investors, to be announced
TBA10:38–10:48
Launch of Clean Air Ambassadors by Taza; special address
Community launchZhuldyz Saulebekova with partners · Arsen Tomsky
10:48–10:57
Questions from the floor
All speakers
10:57–11:00
Closing and call to action
Zhuldyz Saulebekova
11:00–11:15
Media and networking
The line-up brings together the operator who built the model, the scientists who test it and the institutions that can scale it.
Keynote
CEO, Almaty Air Initiative / Taza Initiative
The operator’s view: how to run clean air like a product. Former COO at Uber, Yandex Taxi and Binance with 15 years of scaling technology companies; MSc in Applied Statistics and Data Mining, University of St Andrews.
Special guest
Founder and CEO, inDrive
The entrepreneurial perspective: how technology companies can apply their capabilities, resources, and product thinking to systemic environmental challenges. And why scaling social impact requires more than traditional philanthropy.
Welcome remarks
Director, Climate Policy Department, Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Kazakhstan
The national perspective: in Kazakhstan, climate and clean-air policy go hand in hand, from the 2060 carbon-neutrality goal to switching Almaty’s CHP-2 from coal to gas, which will cut its pollutant emissions more than tenfold.
Speaker
Director, Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), ECMWF
No city has to start from zero: freely available CAMS data help cities assess particulate matter, ozone and regional pollution, strengthening the scientific basis for air-quality and climate decisions.
Speaker
Head of Secretariat, Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC), UNEP
Air quality as climate action: cutting short-lived climate pollutants such as black carbon and methane delivers health and climate benefits at once, and coalitions like CCAC help countries and cities turn that evidence into policy.
Speaker
Founder, A2 Research and Development Lab
Almaty’s source modelling (GRAMM/GRAL): tracing winter smog back to its sources to show which urban measures should come first.
Speaker
Head of Climate Science and Meteorological Engineering, Istanbul Technical University
Lessons from the host country: multi-scale atmospheric modelling connects wildfire smoke and regional pollution transport with urban air quality, informing strategies for healthier, climate-resilient cities.
Joining online
Member of the Lebanese Parliament; American University of Beirut
The science-to-policy perspective: how scientific evidence, community engagement, and environmental justice can help shape legislation, public accountability, and meaningful institutional change.
Video contribution
Dokuz Eylül University
Satellite-based PM10 assessment helps explore relationships between particulate pollution, urban green spaces and human health, complementing ground-based monitoring.
Moderator
Head of PR and Partnerships, inVision; Founder, Climate Action Initiative Central Asia
Additional speakers from development finance institutions and climate investment will join the panel. Their role: test the model against the question every city eventually faces: who pays, and what it takes to scale across Central and South Asia.
The Almaty Model
Almaty is where Taza's approach was first developed and tested in practice. Rather than treating monitoring, research, public communication, and policy engagement as separate projects, Almaty Air Initiative has been bringing these capabilities together through its Brain–Voice–Bridge operating model.
01
BRAIN
Building Independent Evidence
Taza has developed an independent air-quality monitoring network of sensors across Almaty and the surrounding region, alongside scientific research, open data tools, and high-resolution atmospheric modelling. These capabilities help identify pollution patterns, understand contributing sources, and strengthen the evidence available to decision-makers.
02
VOICE
Turning Evidence into Public Understanding and Demand
Scientific evidence must be accessible and meaningful to the people affected by pollution. Taza translates complex data into understandable formats, including the cigarette-equivalent indicator, documentaries, digital campaigns, stand-up comedy, and creative public engagement. Its Air Pollution Awareness Index provides a structured way to assess public concern, knowledge, willingness to act, and actual behaviour.
03
BRIDGE
Connecting Evidence to Institutional Change
Taza engages policymakers, businesses, researchers, and civil society to help translate scientific evidence and public needs into practical decisions. In Almaty, this has included contributions to the city’s Air Protection Rules and work related to low-emission-zone policy.
TECHNOLOGY
Different Products for Different Users
Technology strengthens all three components of the operating model. Taza develops and tests tools designed for different users:
Citizens
The Taza Air mobile application, providing accessible air-quality information and alerts.
Governments and policymakers
High-resolution modelling and the planned Taza AirModel platform to support the evaluation of possible interventions.
Researchers and students
Independent monitoring data and analytical resources.
Journalists and civil society
Dashboards, visualizations, and emerging AI-assisted knowledge tools.
Businesses
Data and analytical insights to support environmental decision-making.
Some of these products are already operational, while others are under development or being tested.
Different products. Different users. One shared outcome: cleaner air.
The Almaty experience provides the foundation for the Taza Playbook — a model that can be adapted and tested in other cities, including Kathmandu and future expansion locations.
What the session delivers
01
A shared systems perspective
Introduce Clean Air as a Product and the Taza operating model as an approach that connects science, technology, public engagement, and institutional action.
02
Evidence translated into decisions
Bring together monitoring, atmospheric modelling, satellite observations, and policy expertise to identify how scientific knowledge can support practical interventions.
03
Technology and product collaboration
Explore opportunities to develop and adapt accessible air-quality tools for citizens, researchers, policymakers, businesses, and other users.
04
A pathway to scaling
Share lessons from Almaty and Taza’s international expansion, and explore how the Taza Playbook could be adapted and tested in additional cities.
05
Clean Air Ambassadors community launch
Introduce an international community connecting people and organizations committed to cleaner air, knowledge-sharing, and local action.
06
Partnership and financing opportunities
Initiate discussions with city governments, development institutions, funders, and technology partners on implementation, collaboration, and potential investment in clean-air solutions.
07
Post-session follow-up
Share key insights, scientific contributions, and potential next steps with participants and partners.
Community launch · 10:38
Clean Air Ambassadors by Taza is an open international community for people who want cleaner air in their cities, with its core in Central and South Asia. Members get access to Taza’s methods and data, regular open conversations with the founders (Taza Talks), a network of peers across cities and a path to lead clean-air projects as ambassadors in their own cities.
Scan the QR code to join and read more
Audience
The session is built for people who decide where clean-air money, policy and attention go next.
City and national governments
A tested path from monitoring data to public support and regulation
Development banks, funds and climate investors
A model ready to scale in Central and South Asia, with measurable outcomes
UN agencies and international coalitions
A Global South case linking air quality, health and climate action
Scientists and research institutions
Ways to make research travel beyond reports and into policy
Civil society, media and communicators
Formats and framing that move audiences from concern to action
Where
When
Media and partnership requests
