Turning calls for change into action<\/b><\/span><\/h3>Contents<\/p>
- 1<\/span> Turning calls for change into action<\/a><\/li>
- 2<\/span> Conference commitments are largely symbolic<\/a><\/li>
- 3<\/span> Action at urban level and repurposing fossil fuel subsidies\u00a0<\/a><\/li>
- 4<\/span> A 65% increase in annual investments could lead to transformative changes<\/a><\/li>
- 5<\/span> President: the Amazon to transport, need stronger preventive health systems and strategies<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/healthpolicy-watch.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/IMG_8703-1024x768.jpg\")
The conference featured a call to action signed by organizations representing 47 million health care professionals and other members of civil society. Center, WHO\u2019s Maria Neira.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe president spoke ahead of a closing day that saw 17 countries and about 40 cities, civil society organizations and philanthropies make commitments<\/a> to reducing air pollution \u2013 along the lines of a WHO call for halving air pollution-related mortality by 2040.<\/p>\nSome 47 million health care professionals also signed a call for urgent<\/a> action to reduce air pollution, published at the conference opening.<\/p>\n\u201cNow, our collective task is to turn this call into action<\/a>. Last month, WHO\u2019s Executive Board agreed to a new global target to reduce the health impacts of air pollution by 50%,\u201d said WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a video-taped statement to conference participants<\/a>.\u00a0 \u201cWe estimate that meeting this goal would save around 3 million<\/a> lives every year.\u201d<\/p>\nBut with few high-level ministers in attendance at the Cartagena event, rallying more member states to the new WHO global target needs to be a long-term endeavor taken up at other climate<\/a> and health fora, and with mechanisms and funding for tracking of progress over time \u2013 something lacking until now.<\/p>\nThe most immediate opportunity will be the upcoming May World Health Assembly \u2013 when member states are expected to review and adopt a new\u00a0WHO Road Map for reducing air pollution\u2019s health impacts<\/a>, which includes the 50% target in the text. At February\u2019s Executive Board meeting,\u00a0\u00a0the 34 member governing body endorsed the Road Map<\/a>. Final\u00a0WHA approval in May would clear the way, at least politically, for a sustained effort amongst member states to meet the 50% target.<\/p>\nUntil now, there has never been a clear, quantifiable UN Sustainable Development Goal<\/a> or WHO target for reducing air pollution, against which progress can be monitored and reported. SDG Target 3.9.1 , which calls for a \u201csubstantial\u201d reduction in air pollution deaths and illnesses, is not really a target it all.<\/p>\nIn addition, the health and economic benefits of air pollution mitigation, particularly the dual air and climate pollutant black carbon, need to be recognized more fully in climate treaties and finance<\/a> mechanisms \u2013 and trillions in fossil fuel subsidies shifted to clean air incentives \u2013\u00a0 conference participants stressed over and over again.<\/p>\nConference commitments are largely symbolic<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/healthpolicy-watch.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/China-CDC--e1743185980750-1024x662.jpg\")
China CDC representative commits to sharing its successful experiences in controlling air pollution with other developing nations.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nIn a difficult geopolitical climate<\/a>, US government officials, who would have typically been a forceful presence at a WHO conference held in the Americas, were entirely absent.\u00a0 And most European nations did not send ministerial-level delegates. Public commitments made at the conference were often more symbolic than tangible \u2013 representing only the start of a long, uphill battle for change.<\/p>\nChina and Brazil, as well as the United Kingdom, Mexico and Vietnam, for instance, committed to strengthening their air quality standards to align more closely with WHO air quality guidelines, although specific targets were not named.\u00a0 China also said it would expand international collaborations<\/a> on air pollution, based on its own national successes in driving down exceedingly high air pollution levels.<\/p>\nSpain committed to a carbon-neutral health-care system by 2050, and Colombia committed to expand initiatives that improve air quality through a clean energy<\/a> transition and advanced wildfire prevention and mitigation.<\/p>\nGermany, Mongolia, Norway, Cuba, Mongolia and Mexico were among the countries commiting to reducing emissions<\/a> in other key sectors, from agriculture to transport. Mexico said it would incorporate black carbon, a powerful climate as well as air pollutant<\/a>, into national vehicle regulations to reduce particulate matter emissions. Mexicoi, together with Mongolia and Vietnam, also pledged to make air quality and health data publicly<\/a> available.<\/p>\nConflict-wracked Somalia committed to a 75% transition to clean cooking by 2040. The Philippines, Pakistan and Cuba also made various forms of commitments, as well as France.<\/p>\n
India has already set a target<\/a> of reducing particulate air pollution by 40% by 2026, over a 2017 baseline, said Dr Aakash Shrivastava, of the Ministry\u2019s National Center for Disease Control, adding, \u201cEven if this target is delayed it will likely progress towards 35% [reduction] by 2035,\u201d in lines with the target outlined by WHO.<\/p>\nOn behalf of the powerful\u00a0C40 cities<\/a>\u00a0network, representing almost 100 of the world\u2019s biggest cities, the Deputy Mayor of London, Mete Coban, committed to advancing urban goals and strategies in line with WHO\u2019s 2040 target and roadmap.<\/p>\nMeanwhile, the Clean Air Fund committed $90 million over the next two years to a series of ongoing air pollution and climate initiatives<\/a>. Among those, it is collaborating with C-40 and Bloomberg in the new\u00a0\u201cBreathe Cities\u201d network<\/a>\u00a0that is financing urban air pollution mitigation efforts \u2013 from afforestation to clean transit and waste management \u2013 in dozens of low- and middle income cities and towns across Africa, Asia and Latin America. It aims to expand the network to 100 cities by 2030.<\/p>\nAction at urban level and repurposing fossil fuel subsidies\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/healthpolicy-watch.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/IMG_8918-scaled-e1743186198118-1024x894.jpg\")
Jane Burston, Clean Air Fund, describes how action at city level can benefit health, air quality and climate.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nA Clean Air Fund report launched at the conference found that halving the health impacts of air pollution by 2040 in\u00a0just 60 cities worldwide could avoid 650,000-1 million deaths a year<\/a>\u00a0and save up to $1 trillion annually.<\/p>\nLarge cities, in particular, often wield considerable budget, regulatory and planning clout that can empower them as early adopters of new approach.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo tackle toxic air pollution<\/a> as an issue of social justice,\u201d said London Deputy Mayor, Mete Coban, who described how he grew up thinking it was normal for a kid to carry around a nebulizer for asthma, and now is part of London\u2019s city government team that has brought center city air pollution levels down to suburban levels in just a few short years, through strategies such as the creation of an ultra-low emissions traffic zone.<\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s an issue of racial justice, but also it\u2019s an issue of economic justice; Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan has put his own political career on the line because he doesn\u2019t want to keep kicking the can down the road.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/healthpolicy-watch.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/IMG_8958-scaled-e1743188945174-1024x446.jpg\")
Mete Coban, Deputy Mayor, City of London, describes the sharp decline in the cities\u2019 air pollution emissions. seen since 2017.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nEven so, national governments need to create a stable regulatory environment as well as consider the quantifiable air pollution and health benefits of clean energy<\/a> and green sector investments, in government tax and finance policies, Jane Burston, head of the Clean Air Fund, told conference participants.<\/p>\n\u201cWe found, for example, that climate investments<\/a> only very barely consider the economics of the parallel reduced air pollution, and when that\u2019s added in a third more climate investments become positive for ROI (return on investment),\u201d Burston said.<\/p>\nGovernments also need to cut back on the trillions of dollars being spent on fossil fuel subsidies<\/a> and redeploy those monies into clean energy and other healthy development strategies.<\/p>\n\u201cSubsidies for fossil fuels for agriculture and fisheries exceed $7 trillion, that\u2019s 8% of GDP, she said, citing the\u00a0World Bank\u2019s\u00a0 2023 Detox Development<\/a>\u00a0report.<\/p>\n\u201cWe know that there\u2019s a shortage of development aid and at the same time, governments are spending trillions on ineffective subsidies that are worsening climate<\/a> change,\u201d Burston said.\u00a0 \u201cMoney is tight. We know that. That\u2019s why we need to invest in solutions that pay dividends in multiple ways\u2026 Clean Air is that solution, and investing in clean air isn\u2019t only the right thing, it\u2019s the smart thing.\u201d<\/p>\nA 65% increase in annual investments could lead to transformative changes<\/span><\/h3>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/healthpolicy-watch.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/IMG_8940-1-scaled-e1743188994622-1024x718.jpg\")
Benoit Bosquet, the Bank\u2019s Regional Director for Sustainable Development in Latin America and the Caribbean.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nA World Bank<\/a> report launched at the conference, meanwhile, projected that an integrated basket of about $14 billion annually of investments in energy, transport, waste and other pollution producing sectors could halve by 2040 the number of people exposed to average outdoor (ambient) air concentrations of the most health harmful pollutant, PM2.5 above 25 micrograms per cubic meter (25 \u00b5g\/m3).<\/p>\nThe relatively modest investments, roughly a 65% increase over current spending levels of about $8.5 billion a year, would reduce related air pollution mortality by about 2 million annually. The measures would also reduce emissions of black carbon by as much as 75 percent and yield about $1.9-$2.1 trillion in economic returns annually, said Benoit Bosquet, the Bank\u2019s Regional Director for Sustainable Development in Latin America and the Caribbean.<\/a>.<\/p>\nConversely, in a business as usual scenario, exposure to levels of outdoor air pollution above (25 \u00b5g\/m3), will affect nearly 6 billion people by 2040, as compared to about 3.3 billion today, he warned.<\/p>\n
Costs of air pollution today are estimated at about $8.1 trillion, or about 10% of global GDP.<\/p>\n
President: the Amazon to transport, need stronger preventive health systems and strategies<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/healthpolicy-watch.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/IMG_8820-1024x768.jpg\")
Busy tourist industry, luxury hotels and poverty all collide in the coastal city of Cartagena.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nBut while the financial case for change, on paper, may be crystal clear, in the reality of a developing country<\/a>, the challenges are far greater, as the Colombian president vividly described.<\/p>\n\u201cYou are here in one of the most unequal cities in the world,\u201d he declared. \u201cOutside of the walled city, a few steps from the millionaire dachaus, you\u2019ll find the poor neighborhoods of Colombia\u2019s former slaves.\u00a0 Draw a map of the ATMs, and you\u2019ll also find the private hospitals and clinics \u2013 beyond which a huge proportion of the population has been left behind.\u201d<\/p>\n
Against that landscape of stark contrasts between rich and poor, the challenges for Colombia to weaning itself away from the oil economy are all the more daunting, he said. Beyond the view of the luxury yaughts anchored in the city\u2019s marinas, off shore oil rigs line the Pacific coast, providing the second largest source of income for the region after tourism.<\/p>\n
Dirty diesel remain the dominant energy source<\/a> for transport, and the results are palpable in the smoke belching from tourist buses and trucks that clog Cartagena\u2019s city center. Despite the acclaim that Bogota received several decades ago for its pioneering urban bus rapid transit system, initiatives to shift to cleaner fuels have so far stalled, thanks to oil industry pressures.<\/p>\n\u201cThere is no electric bus transport,\u201d Petro declared, describing efforts underway now to change<\/a> that.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/healthpolicy-watch.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/IMG_9021-scaled-e1743189658414-300x269.jpg\")
Colombia President Gustavo Petro.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nCriminal gangs continue to deforest parts of Colombia\u2019s Amazon region, changing rainfall patterns<\/a> and watersheds so dramatically that rivers around Bogota have dried up entirely and the capital city faces chronic water shortages. But the poverty driving such illegal land grabs is also a legacy of the colonial era, which robbed peasants of farmland and left them landless, the president pointed out.<\/p>\n
Contents<\/p>
- 1<\/span> Turning calls for change into action<\/a><\/li>
- 2<\/span> Conference commitments are largely symbolic<\/a><\/li>
- 3<\/span> Action at urban level and repurposing fossil fuel subsidies\u00a0<\/a><\/li>
- 4<\/span> A 65% increase in annual investments could lead to transformative changes<\/a><\/li>
- 5<\/span> President: the Amazon to transport, need stronger preventive health systems and strategies<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\n
The conference featured a call to action signed by organizations representing 47 million health care professionals and other members of civil society. Center, WHO\u2019s Maria Neira.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n The president spoke ahead of a closing day that saw 17 countries and about 40 cities, civil society organizations and philanthropies make commitments<\/a> to reducing air pollution \u2013 along the lines of a WHO call for halving air pollution-related mortality by 2040.<\/p>\n
Some 47 million health care professionals also signed a call for urgent<\/a> action to reduce air pollution, published at the conference opening.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, our collective task is to turn this call into action<\/a>. Last month, WHO\u2019s Executive Board agreed to a new global target to reduce the health impacts of air pollution by 50%,\u201d said WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a video-taped statement to conference participants<\/a>.\u00a0 \u201cWe estimate that meeting this goal would save around 3 million<\/a> lives every year.\u201d<\/p>\n
But with few high-level ministers in attendance at the Cartagena event, rallying more member states to the new WHO global target needs to be a long-term endeavor taken up at other climate<\/a> and health fora, and with mechanisms and funding for tracking of progress over time \u2013 something lacking until now.<\/p>\n
The most immediate opportunity will be the upcoming May World Health Assembly \u2013 when member states are expected to review and adopt a new\u00a0WHO Road Map for reducing air pollution\u2019s health impacts<\/a>, which includes the 50% target in the text. At February\u2019s Executive Board meeting,\u00a0\u00a0the 34 member governing body endorsed the Road Map<\/a>. Final\u00a0WHA approval in May would clear the way, at least politically, for a sustained effort amongst member states to meet the 50% target.<\/p>\n
Until now, there has never been a clear, quantifiable UN Sustainable Development Goal<\/a> or WHO target for reducing air pollution, against which progress can be monitored and reported. SDG Target 3.9.1 , which calls for a \u201csubstantial\u201d reduction in air pollution deaths and illnesses, is not really a target it all.<\/p>\n
In addition, the health and economic benefits of air pollution mitigation, particularly the dual air and climate pollutant black carbon, need to be recognized more fully in climate treaties and finance<\/a> mechanisms \u2013 and trillions in fossil fuel subsidies shifted to clean air incentives \u2013\u00a0 conference participants stressed over and over again.<\/p>\n
Conference commitments are largely symbolic<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n
China CDC representative commits to sharing its successful experiences in controlling air pollution with other developing nations.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n In a difficult geopolitical climate<\/a>, US government officials, who would have typically been a forceful presence at a WHO conference held in the Americas, were entirely absent.\u00a0 And most European nations did not send ministerial-level delegates. Public commitments made at the conference were often more symbolic than tangible \u2013 representing only the start of a long, uphill battle for change.<\/p>\n
China and Brazil, as well as the United Kingdom, Mexico and Vietnam, for instance, committed to strengthening their air quality standards to align more closely with WHO air quality guidelines, although specific targets were not named.\u00a0 China also said it would expand international collaborations<\/a> on air pollution, based on its own national successes in driving down exceedingly high air pollution levels.<\/p>\n
Spain committed to a carbon-neutral health-care system by 2050, and Colombia committed to expand initiatives that improve air quality through a clean energy<\/a> transition and advanced wildfire prevention and mitigation.<\/p>\n
Germany, Mongolia, Norway, Cuba, Mongolia and Mexico were among the countries commiting to reducing emissions<\/a> in other key sectors, from agriculture to transport. Mexico said it would incorporate black carbon, a powerful climate as well as air pollutant<\/a>, into national vehicle regulations to reduce particulate matter emissions. Mexicoi, together with Mongolia and Vietnam, also pledged to make air quality and health data publicly<\/a> available.<\/p>\n
Conflict-wracked Somalia committed to a 75% transition to clean cooking by 2040. The Philippines, Pakistan and Cuba also made various forms of commitments, as well as France.<\/p>\n
India has already set a target<\/a> of reducing particulate air pollution by 40% by 2026, over a 2017 baseline, said Dr Aakash Shrivastava, of the Ministry\u2019s National Center for Disease Control, adding, \u201cEven if this target is delayed it will likely progress towards 35% [reduction] by 2035,\u201d in lines with the target outlined by WHO.<\/p>\n
On behalf of the powerful\u00a0C40 cities<\/a>\u00a0network, representing almost 100 of the world\u2019s biggest cities, the Deputy Mayor of London, Mete Coban, committed to advancing urban goals and strategies in line with WHO\u2019s 2040 target and roadmap.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Clean Air Fund committed $90 million over the next two years to a series of ongoing air pollution and climate initiatives<\/a>. Among those, it is collaborating with C-40 and Bloomberg in the new\u00a0\u201cBreathe Cities\u201d network<\/a>\u00a0that is financing urban air pollution mitigation efforts \u2013 from afforestation to clean transit and waste management \u2013 in dozens of low- and middle income cities and towns across Africa, Asia and Latin America. It aims to expand the network to 100 cities by 2030.<\/p>\n
Action at urban level and repurposing fossil fuel subsidies\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n
Jane Burston, Clean Air Fund, describes how action at city level can benefit health, air quality and climate.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n A Clean Air Fund report launched at the conference found that halving the health impacts of air pollution by 2040 in\u00a0just 60 cities worldwide could avoid 650,000-1 million deaths a year<\/a>\u00a0and save up to $1 trillion annually.<\/p>\n
Large cities, in particular, often wield considerable budget, regulatory and planning clout that can empower them as early adopters of new approach.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo tackle toxic air pollution<\/a> as an issue of social justice,\u201d said London Deputy Mayor, Mete Coban, who described how he grew up thinking it was normal for a kid to carry around a nebulizer for asthma, and now is part of London\u2019s city government team that has brought center city air pollution levels down to suburban levels in just a few short years, through strategies such as the creation of an ultra-low emissions traffic zone.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an issue of racial justice, but also it\u2019s an issue of economic justice; Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan has put his own political career on the line because he doesn\u2019t want to keep kicking the can down the road.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mete Coban, Deputy Mayor, City of London, describes the sharp decline in the cities\u2019 air pollution emissions. seen since 2017.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Even so, national governments need to create a stable regulatory environment as well as consider the quantifiable air pollution and health benefits of clean energy<\/a> and green sector investments, in government tax and finance policies, Jane Burston, head of the Clean Air Fund, told conference participants.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe found, for example, that climate investments<\/a> only very barely consider the economics of the parallel reduced air pollution, and when that\u2019s added in a third more climate investments become positive for ROI (return on investment),\u201d Burston said.<\/p>\n
Governments also need to cut back on the trillions of dollars being spent on fossil fuel subsidies<\/a> and redeploy those monies into clean energy and other healthy development strategies.<\/p>\n
\u201cSubsidies for fossil fuels for agriculture and fisheries exceed $7 trillion, that\u2019s 8% of GDP, she said, citing the\u00a0World Bank\u2019s\u00a0 2023 Detox Development<\/a>\u00a0report.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that there\u2019s a shortage of development aid and at the same time, governments are spending trillions on ineffective subsidies that are worsening climate<\/a> change,\u201d Burston said.\u00a0 \u201cMoney is tight. We know that. That\u2019s why we need to invest in solutions that pay dividends in multiple ways\u2026 Clean Air is that solution, and investing in clean air isn\u2019t only the right thing, it\u2019s the smart thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
A 65% increase in annual investments could lead to transformative changes<\/span><\/h3>\n
Benoit Bosquet, the Bank\u2019s Regional Director for Sustainable Development in Latin America and the Caribbean.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n A World Bank<\/a> report launched at the conference, meanwhile, projected that an integrated basket of about $14 billion annually of investments in energy, transport, waste and other pollution producing sectors could halve by 2040 the number of people exposed to average outdoor (ambient) air concentrations of the most health harmful pollutant, PM2.5 above 25 micrograms per cubic meter (25 \u00b5g\/m3).<\/p>\n
The relatively modest investments, roughly a 65% increase over current spending levels of about $8.5 billion a year, would reduce related air pollution mortality by about 2 million annually. The measures would also reduce emissions of black carbon by as much as 75 percent and yield about $1.9-$2.1 trillion in economic returns annually, said Benoit Bosquet, the Bank\u2019s Regional Director for Sustainable Development in Latin America and the Caribbean.<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Conversely, in a business as usual scenario, exposure to levels of outdoor air pollution above (25 \u00b5g\/m3), will affect nearly 6 billion people by 2040, as compared to about 3.3 billion today, he warned.<\/p>\n
Costs of air pollution today are estimated at about $8.1 trillion, or about 10% of global GDP.<\/p>\n
President: the Amazon to transport, need stronger preventive health systems and strategies<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n
Busy tourist industry, luxury hotels and poverty all collide in the coastal city of Cartagena.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n But while the financial case for change, on paper, may be crystal clear, in the reality of a developing country<\/a>, the challenges are far greater, as the Colombian president vividly described.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are here in one of the most unequal cities in the world,\u201d he declared. \u201cOutside of the walled city, a few steps from the millionaire dachaus, you\u2019ll find the poor neighborhoods of Colombia\u2019s former slaves.\u00a0 Draw a map of the ATMs, and you\u2019ll also find the private hospitals and clinics \u2013 beyond which a huge proportion of the population has been left behind.\u201d<\/p>\n
Against that landscape of stark contrasts between rich and poor, the challenges for Colombia to weaning itself away from the oil economy are all the more daunting, he said. Beyond the view of the luxury yaughts anchored in the city\u2019s marinas, off shore oil rigs line the Pacific coast, providing the second largest source of income for the region after tourism.<\/p>\n
Dirty diesel remain the dominant energy source<\/a> for transport, and the results are palpable in the smoke belching from tourist buses and trucks that clog Cartagena\u2019s city center. Despite the acclaim that Bogota received several decades ago for its pioneering urban bus rapid transit system, initiatives to shift to cleaner fuels have so far stalled, thanks to oil industry pressures.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no electric bus transport,\u201d Petro declared, describing efforts underway now to change<\/a> that.<\/p>\n
Colombia President Gustavo Petro.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Criminal gangs continue to deforest parts of Colombia\u2019s Amazon region, changing rainfall patterns<\/a> and watersheds so dramatically that rivers around Bogota have dried up entirely and the capital city faces chronic water shortages. But the poverty driving such illegal land grabs is also a legacy of the colonial era, which robbed peasants of farmland and left them landless, the president pointed out.<\/p>\n
- 2<\/span> Conference commitments are largely symbolic<\/a><\/li>