Air pollution kills an estimated 40,000 people across the country each year, costing the UK £20 billion annually. Children, the elderly, and people with existing medical conditions are at greatest risk. The UN Special Rapporteur recently said he was “concerned that despite repeated judicial direction, the UK government continues to evade its duty to ensure adequate air quality and protect the rights to life and health of its citizens. It has breached its obligations. National leadership and consensus-building are urgently needed to bring about a step change in tackling the air quality problem. The government cannot put public health at risk. It needs to: https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-updates/daily-news-editorials/strengthening-india-s-air-quality-management
• Put public health and the protection of the environment, rather than technical compliance or political convenience, at the centre of air quality policy.
• Develop a properly resourced National Air Quality Support Scheme available to all local authorities struggling with air pollution.
• Introduce a Clean Air Act to improve existing legislation and enshrine the right to clean air in UK law.
• Launch a national health campaign to highlight the dangers of air pollution, including the fact that air quality can be far worse inside a vehicle than on the road. Regular motorists, children and vulnerable groups should be informed of these risks. These groups should be provided with accurate, localised air pollution data.
• Bring forward the date by which manufacturers must end the sale of conventional petrol and diesel cars, in line with more ambitious commitments from around the world. Manufacturers of private, public and commercial vehicles should also take steps to reduce emissions from tyres and braking mechanisms, known as the ‘Oslo effect’, which is also a significant contributor to poor air quality.
• Make the automobile industry contribute to a new Clean Air Fund, following the ‘polluter pays’ principle, on a scale that adequately compensates for the health costs of diesel pollution.
• Align climate change plans, urban planning, public transport and fiscal incentives with air quality targets to prevent government policy from operating on cross-purses.
Our findings
1. Poor air quality has a substantial impact on public health and the environment. Around 3 million early deaths each year are caused by air pollution worldwide. The UK has been illegally breaching nitrogen dioxide limit values since 2010.5 https://www.aqi.in/dashboard/india/rajasthan/jaipur
2. The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Environmental Audit, Health and Social Care,6 and Transport committees established a joint inquiry on 9 October 2017 to consider the government’s most recent plan to reduce nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels. Given the UK’s long-standing breaches of air quality limits, and the clear need for departments to work collaboratively to address the issue, we decided to launch a cross-cutting inquiry to examine whether the government’s latest approach was sufficient. In conducting this inquiry we sought to ensure that air quality problems remain at the forefront of public debate and policy-making, and hoped to raise public awareness of this national health crisis.
3. Much of our evidence focused on road transport, which accounts for some 80% of roadside NO2 concentrations and is a significant focus of the 2017 Plan. We heard evidence from health and air quality policy experts, as well as local authority representatives and ministers from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; the Department for Transport; the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (formerly the Department for Communities and Local Government); and HM Treasury.
4. This report makes a number of recommendations on the government’s approach to air quality and how the delivery of the 2017 Plan should be improved. We focused on the need for action that: a) prioritises the protection of public health and the environment over the demonstration of compliance with legal limits in confined spaces; b) unifies the legislation and establishes clear enforcement mechanisms post-EU-exit; c) increases ambition, pace of action and support for tackling air quality; and d) significantly improves the level of cross-departmental collaboration.
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