Engaging Communities in the Air Quality/Air Pollution Debate

Join our eminent speakers in a discussion which aims to ensure communities are more actively engaged in the air quality/air pollution debate

The Community Planning Alliance (CPA) has been supported by Andrew Jackson, Head of the Government’s Joint Air Quality Unit (DfT/DEFRA) to develop a series of short events aimed at actively engaging member organisations and other community representatives in discussions about next steps in the campaign to drive improvements to air quality in the UK.

A recent report  by by MPs on the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee highlighted that cleaner air and clearer skies were some of the few positives that many people experienced following the first covid-19 lockdown in March 2020.  Sadly, readings have returned to previous levels and as stated in that report, air pollution remains the largest “environmental risk” to UK public health (it is linked to up to 64,000 early deaths a year and health problems caused by air pollution in the UK are estimated to cost society more than £20 billion a year, to say nothing about the impact on our bird, plant and wildlife populations).  In addition, the report confirms that, as the pandemic progressed, evidence also began to emerge that air pollution might increase people’s chances of both catching covid-19 and dying from it.

Furthermore, in responding to the Coroner’s Report into the sad death of Ella Kissi-Debrah in 2013, the Government has committed to:

• increasing public awareness about air pollution and expanding access to information
• augmenting the Air Quality Grant scheme by an additional £6m (this funding sits alongside the £880 million that has already been pledged for local authorities to develop and implement local air quality plans, including Clean Air Zones)
• commencing a public consultation on new legal targets for PM2.5 and other pollutants (with the aim that those new targets will be a legal requirement by October 2022).  In setting these new targets, there will also be a commitment to significantly increase the monitoring network to capture more detailed air quality information across the country.

With these commitments in mind, three initial sessions have been proposed, this first event is focusing on the Government’s plan to introduce more rigorous targets for pollutants.

Our three distinguished speakers at this first session are:

• Andrew Jackson (Head of the Defra/DfT Joint Air Quality Task Force)
• Professor Roy Harrison (OBE, FRS), University of Birmingham
• Heather Henry (RN, BSc (Hons) Nursing, MBA, Queen’s Nurse, Founder Breathchamps)

We’ll discuss the debate to date on targets for air pollution, the complexities, the range of pollutants, the impact on our health and wellbeing, and much more. There will be an opportunity to raise your questions, to bring your ideas to the table and to help us identify next steps.

Future sessions will be looking at identifying ways of measuring and monitoring air pollution at a local level and considering opportunities to raise public awareness about the health impacts of air pollution.  Ideas have already been suggested for other events, so there will be no shortage of proposals to engage communities in the race to tackle this “national health emergency”.

Register your (free) place via Eventbrite

Event Details