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CLEAN AIR
IS A HUMAN RIGHT
Blue sky with clouds
Every Breath Matters
SIGN
ME UP
Everyone deserves to breathe clean air
And yet, this year, 7 million people will die prematurely because of air pollution.
That’s three times the number of people who die each year from AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria - combined.
Nine out of ten people on earth are risking asthma, cancer, heart disease, strokes, early dementia and cognitive dysfunction - simply by breathing.
In China, toxic air is shortening the Chinese lifespan by more than three years, while in India, air pollution can cut a person’s lifespan by four years on average (and nearly a decade for someone in the capital New Delhi) according to the Air Quality Life Index (AQLI).
Fossil fuel-driven air pollution is the greatest threat to human health - and we know exactly what’s causing it. Most of the air pollution we cause results from the burning of fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, natural gas, and gasoline to produce electricity and power our vehicles. Another large source of air pollution is the burning of biomass such as crop residue and wood.
Scientists have shown us that burning fossil fuels is “the world’s most significant threat to children’s health”. Our children’s life chances are compromised before they are born. Toxic particles from exhaust fumes pass through the lungs of pregnant women and accumulate in the placenta. The risk of premature birth and low birth weight this causes is a public health catastrophe. Pollution from diesel vehicles is stunting the growth of children’s lungs, leaving them damaged for life.
This is totally unacceptable.
Every Breath Matters is campaigning for a world in which everyone will breathe clean air by 2030
The campaign is spearheaded by a group of clean air champions (scroll down for list) who are committed to do all they can to reverse the devastating health impacts of air pollution. They commit to urging world leaders to take bold action that will clean up the air and protect the health of billions of people.
These champions accelerate and amplify the work of our partner organizations, which are doing the hard work on the ground to eradicate air pollution.
Every Breath Matters champions call for global leaders to focus their attention on three of the main contributors to air pollution and climate change:
- COAL
Coal is a public health emergency. In 2018 global CO2 emissions from fossil fuels grew more than 2% due to growth in coal use, and despite the rise of renewable energy deployment, coal is still the mainstay of many economies, including in India and China. In addition to being the largest contributor to global warming, coal burning is the single largest contributor to mercury contamination in the environment. Burning coal for electricity also releases sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter that can penetrate deep into the lungs, lead, cadmium, arsenic, VOC’s and carbon monoxide into our air.
What we want: Replace coal with clean, affordable renewable energy
End investments to expand fossil-fuel assets
Quickly retire existing coal-based infrastructure as clean technologies take hold
Double the share of renewables in the global energy mix
- INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES
Transport is one of the main sources of air pollution, for which evidence of direct effects on mortality as well as on respiratory and cardiovascular disease is firmly established. This is largely because of diesel engines in cars, but also includes heavy transportation too. Transport is the also the fastest growing source of fossil-fuel CO2 emissions, the biggest contributor to climate change. The good news is that momentum is building for a different future: consumer demand for electric vehicles is growing and many cities around the world are already exerting their citizens’ rights to clean air by promoting public transportation and other solutions.
What we want: Switch from combustion engine to zero emission mobility
A rapid switch from petrol and diesel vehicles to more robust zero-emissions public transport, electric vehicles, car-sharing and bike schemes
A rapid increase in the number of ultra low-emissions zones, shifting to zero-emissions zones in all towns and cities
- AGRICULTURAL BURNING
Open burning in the agricultural sector causes enormous health impacts in rural and urban communities around the world, especially among children and the very old. It is done for a variety of reasons — removing crop residue before plowing, clearing weeds and pests, “renewing” pastures — but the practice causes far more damage than good; and not just to human health.
Contrary to common belief, burning decreases soil fertility by destroying nutrients and making the soil more brittle and prone to erosion. Yields and productivity go down, not up; increasing the need for expensive fertilizers. The smoke from burning can travel enormous distances, especially the smallest particles: PM2.5 and the even smaller (<PM1) black carbon are so small that they can pass from the lungs into the bloodstream causing heart disease and cancer. In addition, black carbon absorbs heat, adding to climate change. When black carbon lands on snow and ice, it causes more rapid loss of snow and glaciers, on which many rely for water supplies, and contributes to sea-level rise.
The good news is that alternatives exist to nearly all kind of agricultural burning, and farmers can be supported to make the transition. There may be cases where exceptions are made, such as in fire prevention; but the practice of burning fields and pasture one, two or even three times a year can become a thing of the past — and without the risk of spreading new wildfires in our warmer and drier climate.
What we want: Shifting from burning the soil to sowing clean air
A massive scaling up of investment in education, regulation and technologies that, by 2030, renders agricultural burning a thing of the past. Those technologies include:
Low-till, such as better plows or support for equipment to turn the stubble back into the soil, making it richer and more resilient
No-till and cover crops, which creates soils even more fertile and resilient, and less prone to erosion and drought
Material applications to make use of the residue, such as animal bedding, or new products such as those in IKEA’s “Better Air Initiative”
Turning agricultural and forest waste into a source of cleaner energy, such as biogas or pellets for cooking and heating stoves
The Every Breath Matters group of clean air champions includes:
Tedros Adhanom, Director-General of the World Health Organization
Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, Co-Founder of the Ella Roberta Family Foundation
Nicolas Berggruen, Chairman of the Berggruen Institute
Leonardo DiCaprio, Chairman of the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation
Christiana Figueres, Former Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and Convenor of Mission 2020
Sadiq Khan, Mayor, London
Dr. Arvind Kumar Founder & Managing Trustee at Lung Care Foundation; Chairman, Centre for Chest Surgery at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi
Greta Thunberg, Climate Activist
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