Each year the OAS Secretary General publishes a
proposed Program-Budget for the coming calendar
year. The OAS General Assembly meets in a Special
Session to approve the Program-Budget. Find these
documents from 1998-2013 here.
Each year in April, the OAS Board of External Auditors
publishes a report covering the previous calendar
year’s financial results. Reports covering 1996-2013
may be found here.
Approximately six weeks after the end of each semester,
the OAS publishes a Semiannual Management and Performance
Report, which since 2013 includes reporting on programmatic
results. The full texts may be found here.
Here you will find data on the Human Resources of
the OAS, including its organizational structure,
each organizational unit’s staffing, vacant posts,
and performance contracts.
The OAS executes a variety of projects funded by
donors. Evaluation reports are commissioned by donors.
Reports of these evaluations may be found here.
The Inspector General provides the Secretary General
with reports on the audits, investigations, and
inspections conducted. These reports are made available
to the Permanent Council. More information may be
found here.
The OAS has discussed for several years the real
estate issue, the funding required for maintenance
and repairs, as well as the deferred maintenance
of its historic buildings. The General Secretariat
has provided a series of options for funding it.
The most recent document, reflecting the current
status of the Strategy, is CP/CAAP-3211/13 rev.
4.
Here you will find information related to the GS/OAS
Procurement Operations, including a list of procurement
notices for formal bids, links to the performance
contract and travel control measure reports, the
applicable procurement rules and regulations, and
the training and qualifications of its staff.
The OAS Treasurer certifies the financial statements
of all funds managed or administered by the GS/OAS.
Here you will find the latest general purpose financial
reports for the main OAS funds, as well as OAS Quarterly
Financial Reports (QFRs).
Every year the GS/OAS publishes the annual operating
plans for all areas of the Organization, used to
aid in the formulation of the annual budget and
as a way to provide follow-up on institutional mandates.
Metrology for
Sustainable Energy Technologies
and the Environment (M4SET)
Analyzing the behavior of air pollutants during the Covid-19 global lockdown
This activity took place virtually on April 16, 2020, and counted
with around 150 participants, where air quality monitoring stations in the cities of Medellín, Santiago de Chile, Buenos Aires and Mexico City, shared the changes in air quality in their cities during the Covid-19
lockdown. In follow-up to this seminar, a
follow-up meeting was organized on April 22 to resolve pending questions from the monitoring stations,
and where the cities of Quito and Sao Paulo also had the opportunity to present the trend of air quality in their cities during the
lockdown.
With millions of people on a
lockdown as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, cities around the world began to see changes in the behavior of air pollutants. A dramatic drop in traffic and reduced industrial and commercial activity led to a temporary drop in air pollution levels almost everywhere in the world. As the response to Covid-19 around the world altered behaviors that generate toxic pollutants and emissions, the
current situation provides a momentary glimpse of what happens to the air we breathe when emissions are drastically reduced and sudden.
Data collected by air quality monitoring stations in Latin American cities showed a dramatic improvement in air quality since quarantine over the same period a year ago. Air pollution
has been decreasing in most of the developed world as authorities
have been imposing curfews and restricting movement in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak. The measured drop in nitrogen oxides or NOx is not surprising since economic activity and transport are currently minimal.
However, this was not the
overview for all cities; Climate
events influence air pollution,
so cities that experienced fires
could still have high levels of
particulate concentration such
as PM 2.5, and similarly, other
cities could experience
increased levels of ozone and
ultra-fine particulate matter due to chemical interactions between volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and nitrogen oxides.
This virtual seminar opened a space to share the latest data on air pollution from various air quality monitoring stations in Latin America, and was an opportunity to discuss the emissions data and methods used by the monitoring stations
in the region to analyze the behavior of air pollutants during
the lockdown period.
The Panel:
Welcome remarks
Juan Cruz Monticelli,
Section Chief, Organization
of American States (OAS).
General overview on air pollutants
Dr. Jorge Koelliker, Coordinador Científico del Grupo de Metrología de Gases, CENAM, Mexico.
See presentation
here.
James Norris, Gas Sensing Metrology Group, U.S
National Institute of Standards
and Technology
(NIST) requested the floor for an intervention and contributed to the overview on
air pollutants. See presentation
here.
What can be interpreted from the current levels of Air Pollution?
• Medellín, Colombia: Tiberio Benavidez, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, sede Medellín, Laboratorio Calaire.
See presentation here.
• Santiago, Chile: Isabel Leiva Campos, Superintendencia del Medio Ambiente (SMA)
. See presentation, here.
• Buenos Aires, Argentina: Maria Ines de Casas
Agencia de Protección Ambiental, S.O Monitoreo Atmosférico. See presentation
here.
• Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico: Olivia Rivera Hernandez, Sistema de Monitoreo Atmosférico de la Ciudad de Mexico (SEDEMA – SIMAT).
See presentation
here.
• Sao Paulo, Brasil: Maria Lucia Goncalves Guardani,Companhia Ambiental do Estado de Sao Paulo (CETESB).
See presentation
here.
• Quito, Ecuador: Maria Valeria Díaz
Responsable Técnica y Administrativa de la Red de Metropolitana Ambiental de Quito, Laboratorio de la Secretaría de Ambiente. See presentation
here.
The recording of the whole session will soon be available
in this website.
Objective
Share the latest data on air pollution from various air quality monitoring stations in Latin America.
Discuss emissions data and methods used by monitoring stations to analyze the behavior of air pollutants during the quarantine period.