There is nothing more important than the air we breathe. Over the past 40 years we have made incredible progress towards cleaning up the air in our urban areas, reducing air pollution levels of all major pollutants by between 58 and 93%.
But the work is far from over. Alarmingly, rather than maintaining this promising trajectory, air pollution levels have stalled and, in some cases, increased in recent years.
Polluted air remains responsible for around 40,000 premature deaths every year, thought to cause or aggravate health conditions including asthma, bronchitis and lung cancer. And it is poor people who suffer the most from this exposure. Children who grow up in our disadvantaged inner-city areas may not breathe clean air for the first several years of their life, leading to permanently reduced lung capacity and health complications further down the line.
It is crucial that we take urgent action to reduce air pollution now so, at this engaging online event, we explore some of the steps being taken to do so, in both the public and private sectors. Hear from an array of expert speakers, each outlining the innovative methods their organisations are employing to track air quality and what must still be done to improve it.
Link to video (En) : Youtube