Vice President Invites Iranians to 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.

Ebtekar published the invitation to “the 18° temperature challenge” together with images of correspondence made regarding the issue in a Telegram channel as well as her Twitter account.

“The 18° C 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.

In a letter addressed to vice presidents, ministers, and governors, Ebtekar has also urged all state departments to keep the temperature in closed interior spaces below 21° C inside rooms and up to 18° C in corridors and other indoor spaces during working hours. State departments are also required to turn off heating and fuel-consuming devices on holidays in order to help reduce energy consumption, intended to decrease air pollution in turn.

Following Ebtekar’s tweet, the initiative has received a warm welcome by many as people in Tehran and a number of other major Iranian cities have been suffering from severe air pollution for the past 20 days, prompting severe criticism of the Department of Environment.

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 on two separate occasions. Sporadic soft rain and light winds, however, have temporarily helped improve the situation.

Ebtekar represented Iran in the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP 21, held in Paris, in which Iran promised to reduce its emission of greenhouse gases.

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 crisis.

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.

On Wednesday, President Hassan Rouhani said his cabinet decided to take “urgent and short-term” decisions to reduce air pollution in big cities. “The air pollution cannot be cut in a short period of time, however, the government is obliged to make short-term decisions in a way that people feel the issue is getting better,” he was quoted as saying by Tehran Times.

Exhaust fumes emitted from five million cars in Tehran are to be blamed for eighty percent of the capital’s pollution, according to PressTV.