£30m clean air initiative launches at London Climate Week

“Clean air is a fundamental necessity for everyone to live, grow, and thrive. That is why we are proud to partner with Bloomberg Philanthropies and C40 Cities, to tackle air pollution in cities across the world,” said Jane Burston, executive director, Clean Air Fund. “By advancing action at the local level, promoting new data and technologies, and building a robust network to share valuable lessons along with fostering community cohesion, we are collectively empowering cities to improve air quality and address one of the greatest public health problems of our time. Together, we can create a future where everyone can breathe clean air.” 

Dr Kofi Amegah, associate professor of epidemiology at University of Cape Coast, Ghana and lead, Ghana Urban Air Quality Project (GHAir), stressed the need to pay particular attention of air quality issues in the Global South.

“Toxic air pollution is a public health crisis in many of our cities – leading to premature death and chronic disease”

“Clean air is a fundamental human right and we must take action to address the disproportionate impact that poor air quality has on vulnerable populations across the globe. We particularly need to pay attention to the Global South, where air pollution is worsening and yet there is very limited monitoring capacity to understand the extent and magnitude of the problem to quickly act to protect the growing vulnerable population. This is why I am extremely delighted to see the launch of this new initiative by Mike Bloomberg and Mayor Sadiq Khan, empowering cities globally to scale visionary solutions and measurable advancements in air quality.” 

At Cop26 in 2021, Khan called for the creation of Breathe Cities to build upon the successful Breathe London programme. Breathe Cities also builds on existing efforts led by Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Clean Air Fund in the cities of Brussels, Jakarta, London, Milan, Paris, and Warsaw to track air pollution and shape public advocacy and policy measures to reduce pollution, and C40 efforts to increase global commitments to clean air, support mayors in implementing ambitious air quality actions, and create forums for mayors and city staff to scale solutions.

Additionally, Breathe Cities builds off of Bloomberg Philanthropies support to the City of Denver and its Mayors’ Challenge-winning programme called Love My Air, which deployed air quality sensors to track hyper-local air quality data at Denver Public Schools, and made that data broadly available, to help residents and city leaders respond to local air quality.