Environment Secretary, Michael Gove, has launched an ambitious new strategy to clean up our air and save lives.
Air pollution is one of the biggest threats to public health in the UK – behind only cancer, obesity and heart disease – and the measures set out in the Clean Air Strategy will cut the costs of air pollution to society by £1.7 billion every year by 2020, rising to £5.3 billion every year from 2030.
The UK will set an ambitious, long-term target to reduce people’s exposure to particulate matter (PM), which the World Health Organization (WHO) has identified as the most damaging pollutant.
To inform development of this new target, the government will publish evidence early this year on what action would be needed to meet WHO guidelines.
This comes on top of a commitment to halve the number of people living in areas breaching WHO guidelines on PM by 2025. The UK is the first major economy to adopt air quality goals based on WHO recommendations, going far beyond EU requirements.
Launching the Clean Air Strategy, Michael Gove said: “The evidence is clear. While air quality has improved significantly in recent years, air pollution continues to shorten lives, harm our children and reduce quality of life.
“We must take strong, urgent action. Our ambitious strategy includes new targets, new powers for local government and confirms that our forthcoming Environment Bill will include new primary legislation on air quality.
The Clean Air Strategy sets out a programme of work across government, industry and society to reduce emissions coming from a wide range of sources.
Following a recent increase in popularity, domestic burning on stoves and open fires is now the single biggest source of particulate matter emissions which is why as part of the new strategy we will:
- Introduce new legislation to prohibit the sale of the most polluting fuels
- Ensure that only the cleanest stoves are available for sale by 2022
- Continue to explore how we can give local authorities powers to increase the rate of upgrades of inefficient and polluting heating appliances
- Bring existing smoke control legislation up to date, and make it easier to enforce
“No-one can tackle air pollution alone so it is a duty of government to act for us all. We are determined to clean up our environment and are taking the lead with this Clean Air Strategy, added Mr Gove.
We have made strides forward over the past few years and the action we are taking today will save lives and improve the health of the nation – both for those of us here today and for generations to come.”