Clean Air Day 2023

Air today, smog tomorrow

You may or may not have heard of Clean Air Day, but in air pollution circles, it’s kind of a big thing. And it’s just a week away, on 15 June. It is organised by Global Action Plan, and is The UK’s largest campaign on air pollution. It rallies around different themes each year, and this year the campaign encourages people to:

• Learn: find out more about how air pollution impacts our mental, physical and planet’s health.

• Act: walk, wheel or use public transport to reduce your exposure and contribution to air pollution. If you drive, try leaving the car behind on Clean Air Day and one day every week.

• Ask: get in touch with your local councillor to ask them to support clean air measures that make it easier for you to breathe clean air.

Look out for events too. This event of the All Party Parliamentary Group looks great - an opportunity to hear from experts and engage with policy makers.

We don’t condone vigilante action

Across the pond

While we’re planning for Clean Air Day, it’s sad to see that across the Atlantic, people are suffering with horrendous air pollution. This has been caused by forest fires, rather than the usual traffic and industrial pollution, which is more the norm here.

It’s a good reminder of the link between air quality and climate change, with events such as wild fires being more likely with global warming and the resultant impact on air quality. Yet many of the ways we can address both challenges are the same, through reducing our use of fossil fuels and turning to greener energy sources.

New York City on a better day

The alerts by the US and Canadian authorities to people to stay indoors also got us thinking about the pandemic. (The return of widespread use of face masks, similarly.) We wonder if anyone is thinking through the policy implications of advising people, especially the most vulnerable, to stay indoors. These lessons had to be quickly learnt at the start of the pandemic - how to support people whose work meant they couldn’t work remotely? how to support working parents when schools were shut? how to ensure children’s education continued?

The impacts and policy questions around air quality continue to grow. We’d love to hear your thoughts! And don’t forget to take action on Clean Air Day!