Last week, members of the Healthy Air Coalition staged a protest in Parliament Square, calling on the government to write a new Clean Air Act. 98.7% of people in England live in areas exceeding WHO limits for fine particulate matter PM2.5 pollution. That’s 57.9 million people breathing unsafe air. And while many think of air pollution as a city problem, toxic air affects rural communities too. Areas including Cannock Chase, West Suffolk and Cornwall are estimated to have pollution levels comparable to Birmingham and Luton.
In 2021, the EU Court of Justice found the UK guilty of “systematically and persistently” breaching air pollution limits for years. The result? The UK has the highest death rate from lung conditions in Western Europe. London in particular remains one of the worst cities for toxic air, with the highest recorded levels of nitrogen dioxide out of all European capitals.
A new report just published by Clean Air Fund, with research commissioned from CBI Economics and WSP, highlights the huge health and economic value of cleaner air as a result of the UK’s planned net zero policies. The measures would generate an estimated £7.7 billion in productivity gains by 2050 through improved workforce health, reduced illness-related absences and longer working lives. The report, The Clean Air Dividend of Net Zero, finds that decarbonisation across transport, buildings, industry and power generation will bring substantial air quality gains.
It's win-win-win if we act to clean up the air!
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