News 25 July 2022
Mayor of London and Chair of C40 Cities, Sadiq Khan, recently announced that C40 will work with 12 cities in Africa, Asia and Latin American to advance targeted projects to alleviate toxic air pollution. Supported by Clean Air Fund, the projects range from data monitoring and policy delivery to citizen engagement.
Mayor Khan addressed health experts, youth activists and representatives from 16 C40 cities at the Air Quality and Climate Solutions Summit in London. C40 brought together city governments from around the world to address the triple threat of congestion, air pollution and the climate emergency.
Over 99% of people living in C40 cities breathe air that is deemed unhealthy by the World Health Organization (WHO). The burden of outdoor air pollution falls disproportionately on people in low and middle-income countries, where 91% of premature pollution-related deaths take place.
As Chair of C40, Mayor Khan has pledged two-thirds of the C40 budget to cities in low- and middle-income countries. Clean Air Fund and C40 will support cities with:
- air quality and health data collection, analysis and management
- the delivery of policies to create low emission zones, zero emission areas, vehicle emissions testing programmes, freight measures and other actions
- communication and citizen engagement strategies to support the implementation of policies and programmes.
Some of the projects include:
- Working with Mexico City to implement its new air quality management plan, with a focus on developing strategies to address emissions from freight, a major source of air pollution.
- Supporting Dehli to achieve India National Clean Air Programme targets by 2024 by building capacity for air quality monitoring and analysis, supporting collaborative air quality planning across city departments, and integrating community input into local air quality management.
- Supporting Bogota with hyperlocal air quality monitoring and designing interventions for a bold new zero emission area programme in places where vulnerable communities reside.
The Zonas Urbanas por un Mejor Aire (ZUMA) is a priority project for the Bogotá we are building – a more sustainable, caring, fair and regreening city. It will reduce emissions from both industry and transport, encourage active mobility, increase green areas, reduce air pollution exposure and improve the health of many of Bogotá’s residents and visitors.
Claudia López, Mayor of Bogotá
