Press: Addressing air pollution to tackle public health and climate change

As the world looks at how to recover from COVID-19, there is a unique opportunity to ‘build back better’ by addressing air pollution, alongside climate, health and development priorities. How can the world build back the economy in the most resilient way?

A webinar on 7 September explores integrated strategies that achieve clean air, benefit human health, contribute to addressing climate change and make progress towards multiple Sustainable Development Goals. A new policy brief ‘Air pollution and its impact on human health: an important driver for achieving the 1.5°C goal of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’, will be launched at the webinar.

Air pollution is the world’s largest environmental health risk, contributing to 7 million premature deaths per year, according to the World Health Organization. The health impact of air pollution most heavily affects urban and low-income communities.

SEI research has highlighted the main impacts of air pollution on health, showing that small particulate matter can be related to millions of asthma-related visits to hospital each year globally, and over two million pre-term births, which can have life-long health implications for survivors.

To reduce the health impacts from air pollution, SEI’s Low Emissions Analysis Platform and Integrated Benefits Calculator (LEAP-IBC) can help plan coherent emission reduction strategies with health benefits.

See more on the SEI website