UNITED NATIONS: Marking the International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies on Thursday, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued a clarion call for increased international cooperation to address the “global emergency” of worsening air pollution.
He said that airborne contaminants are one of the most considerable environmental health risks.
According to the UN World Health Organization (WHO), 99% of the world’s population breathes polluted air, with the exposure considerably worse in low and middle-income nations.
The pervasive nature of air pollution needs global collaboration, it was pointed out. This year’s theme, ‘Together for Clean Air,’ addresses the urgent need for consolidated international partnerships, collective responsibility to cut air pollution, and increased investment in this regard.
UN chief calls for global solutions
The UN chief said that global issues required global solutions. The world must act together for clean air.
He said that together, the world must accelerate a just and equitable transition away from fossil fuels, especially coal, towards clean, renewable energy while ensuring that no one is left behind.
According to the United Nations, air pollution is defined as any physical, chemical, or biological contaminant that modifies the natural characteristics of the atmosphere.
Household cookers and other combustion devices, industrial facilities, cars, and forest fires are the most common sources of air pollution. Air pollution exists both indoors and outdoors, and both severely impact human health.
It said that pollutants that are especially dangerous include ozone, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, and sulfur dioxide.
Air pollution also includes PM2.5, inhalable particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter – less than that of human hair.
Exposure dramatically increases the strokes risk, cancer, heart and lung disease, and other ailments, leading to more than 6.7 million premature deaths annually, according to WHO.
