Covid-19 shows why clean air matters, but the cash to get it is wanting
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Barcelona — Development funding for efforts to tackle air pollution falls far short of what is needed in a world where nine in 10 people breathe air that is damaging their health, a problem thrown into sharp focus by the pandemic, researchers said on Monday.
A report released to mark the first International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies shows grant funding for initiatives to curb air pollution amounted to $273m from 2015 to 2019. That is a tiny fraction of the development aid provided by governments and philanthropic organisations, yet devoting more cash to clean air could boost other global goals too, it said.
Former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon noted in a foreword that outdoor air pollution is responsible for more than 4-million deaths each year, but the political will to tackle the problem is increasing as evidence of the damage becomes clearer. In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated how the world can pull together when faced with “an existential threat”, Ban wrote.
He called for global collaboration and bold leadership to address poor air quality. “With a strategic and well-resourced approach to cleaning our air, we can improve health, build resilience to future pandemics, boost productivity, reduce health costs, and help tackle climate change,” he said.
Inger Andersen, executive director of the UN Environment Programme, told an online event that lockdowns to curb the spread of the virus showed “clearer skies are possible”, but stopping economies and keeping children at home is not the way forward. “What we want to do is to have a green transition. What we want to see is that the stimulus funds that are now available are being put into a greener future for tomorrow,” she said.
In the report, the nonprofit Clean Air Fund, which works to combat air pollution and raises money for that aim, tracked $118m in grants from philanthropic foundations to improve outdoor air quality in the past five years. At least another $155m came from official donors, including governments and development banks, it found. Read the report here (
That compares with nearly $153bn in total development assistance from the world’s wealthy governments in 2019.
The air quality funding measured in the report backed projects from technology to measure levels and sources of air pollution, to educational campaigns, fitting scrubbers to industrial chimneys and introducing cleaner electric buses. The research showed that loans to improve air ...
A report released to mark the first International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies shows grant funding for initiatives to curb air pollution amounted to $273m from 2015 to 2019. That is a tiny fraction of the development aid provided by governments and philanthropic organisations, yet devoting more cash to clean air could boost other global goals too, it said.
Former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon noted in a foreword that outdoor air pollution is responsible for more than 4-million deaths each year, but the political will to tackle the problem is increasing as evidence of the damage becomes clearer. In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated how the world can pull together when faced with “an existential threat”, Ban wrote.
He called for global collaboration and bold leadership to address poor air quality. “With a strategic and well-resourced approach to cleaning our air, we can improve health, build resilience to future pandemics, boost productivity, reduce health costs, and help tackle climate change,” he said.
Inger Andersen, executive director of the UN Environment Programme, told an online event that lockdowns to curb the spread of the virus showed “clearer skies are possible”, but stopping economies and keeping children at home is not the way forward. “What we want to do is to have a green transition. What we want to see is that the stimulus funds that are now available are being put into a greener future for tomorrow,” she said.
In the report, the nonprofit Clean Air Fund, which works to combat air pollution and raises money for that aim, tracked $118m in grants from philanthropic foundations to improve outdoor air quality in the past five years. At least another $155m came from official donors, including governments and development banks, it found. Read the report here (
That compares with nearly $153bn in total development assistance from the world’s wealthy governments in 2019.
The air quality funding measured in the report backed projects from technology to measure levels and sources of air pollution, to educational campaigns, fitting scrubbers to industrial chimneys and introducing cleaner electric buses. The research showed that loans to improve air ...