By
Breathe Cities: Fadhil Firdaus; Vivian Pun; Chloe Watson; Luisa Miranda Morel;
Jakarta Provincial Government: Retno Setiowati; Nofrida
Cities increasingly recognise the need to place residents at the heart of policy design and implementation. From Jakarta to London, and Johannesburg to Bogotá, local policymakers are investing in studies and community engagement processes that help them understand how different residents are affected by poor air quality and the policies cities propose.
However, insight does not automatically become action. Brilliant ideas and crucial findings often sit in reports, forgotten in policy drafting or remembered only when someone asks for “evidence of community engagement.” Breathe Cities is supporting cities around the world to ensure these insights translate into action.
Insight into action in Jakarta
As part of its wider plans for city transformation, Jakarta has been laying the groundwork for its next low emission zone (LEZ, or locally known as Kawasan Rendah Emisi or KRE), which is broadly aligned with the global concept of a Clean Air Zone, to improve air quality. Building on LEZ pilots in Kota Tua and Tebet Eco Park, Jakarta is now developing a more integrated, area-based approach that goes beyond transport to connect cleaner air, low-carbon development, inclusive mobility and better urban places, contributing to wider city goals, such as net zero emissions by 2050, centering 70% of residents and activities around mass transit nodes and achieving 55% public transport mode share. This approach brings together interventions across transport, buildings, energy, waste, industry, and land-use planning.
Breathe Cities’ Local Voices, Cleaner Air report captures the first part of Jakarta’s story: how the city worked with local partners to carry out a needs assessment and speak to residents, drivers and vendors in two neighbourhoods, Blok M and Dukuh Atas. The goal was to understand what Jakarta’s LEZ would mean for their daily lives, before a single line was drawn on a map.
Next, Breathe Cities in Jakarta complemented this community feedback with other types of analysis:
- A Feasibility Assessment and Implementation Roadmap Development, sequencing what Jakarta can deliver, when, and across which sectors
- A Cost-Benefit Analysis, modeling the air quality, health and traffic spillover impacts of different scenarios across potential locations
- A governance and legal framework, translating community and technical findings into an institutional structure designed to last beyond the pilot
The result is not a single study or recommendation, but a delivery framework that connects evidence, community priorities and institutional action.
Jakarta is now bringing these insights and evidence together into a clear, practical roadmap for how its next-generation LEZ can be implemented.
How did the evidence inform policy and action?
01. Selecting a potential first pilot
Site selection was not determined by any single study. Findings from the technical feasibility assessment (considering factors such as public transport coverage, commercial and government activity and socio-economic vulnerability) were weighed alongside cost-benefit modeling of air quality, health, traffic outcomes, and what communities said about daily life in each area. Dukuh Atas, one of the city’s major and busiest transit interchanges, scored highest on technical criteria alone. But when the three evidence streams were brought together, Blok M – a mixed-use, high foot traffic area with real kerbside pressures and a clear stakeholder presence – emerged as the more representative test case. Overall, it offered a more balanced setting to test the approach before scaling it elsewhere.
02. Setting success criteria for a monitoring and evaluation framework
Community engagement made it clear that the success of clean air interventions depends on more than just emissions reduction. Livelihoods must be protected, daily journeys must become safer and more manageable, and costs and burdens must be shared fairly across the formal and informal economies from the outset. These insights, together with the cost-benefit analysis, informed the criteria Jakarta will use to evaluate whether the LEZ is working. Success is not just about whether pollution falls, but whether that progress happens without pushing costs disproportionately onto low-income commuters or small businesses.
03. Translating insights into a formal governance and legal framework
To deliver on these success criteria, the city recognised the need to establish frameworks and processes that bring multiple agencies together. Community feedback underlined that residents also need an active, ongoing role in monitoring LEZ implementation, as well as a standing channel through which to raise issues and see them acted on. These insights shaped recommendations for the city’s future approach to governance for the LEZ:
- A joint task force bringing together Jakarta’s relevant agencies, co-led by Environment and Transport agencies under the Governor’s authority
- An annual public participation forum to ensure community representatives can review progress and help shape refinements to design and enforcement
- Sub-district offices playing an important year-round role in collecting and relaying information and community feedback
The legal framework underpinning this, covering enforcement, exemptions, public participation, and data sharing across agencies, is being drafted in parallel with the pilot, rather than waiting for the pilot to demonstrate results.
Looking to the future
It is easy for insight to end at the report. Jakarta is building a system to make sure it doesn’t. By actively using evidence and community insights to shape site selection, monitoring and evaluation, and long-term governance, the city is creating a clearer pathway from research to implementation.
In doing so, Jakarta’s next generation of LEZ is not simply about creating one cleaner district, but about developing a practical and adaptable approach that can inform future low-emission areas across the city, bringing together cleaner air, inclusive mobility, better urban places and meaningful community participation.
