47 million health workers and advocates call for cleaner air to curb pollution deaths
The Second WHO Global Conference on Air Pollution and Health co-hosted by the World Health Organization and Colombia, in the city of Cartagena, brought together over 700 participants from 100 countries - including heads of state, ministers, scientists, and civil society groups — to accelerate action to curb what’s increasingly described as a full-scale health emergency.
“It is time to move from commitments to bold actions,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.
“To achieve clean air, we need urgent actions on all fronts: financial investment in sustainable solutions, such as in clean energy and sustainable transport, technical enforcement of WHO global air quality guidelines, and social commitment to protect the most vulnerable in our most polluted regions.”
The shared goal? A 50 per cent reduction in the health impacts of air pollution by 2040.
Countries including Brazil, Spain, China, and the United Kingdom laid out national roadmaps, while the Clean Air Fund pledged an additional $90 million for climate and health programmes.
Cities which are part of the C40 network, including London, vowed to strengthen air quality monitoring and push for greater investment in clean air strategies.
A health crisis hidden in plain sight
According to WHO, air pollution is responsible for seven million premature deaths annually and is now the second leading global risk factor for disease, after hypertension.
“Today air pollution is the first risk factor for disease burden,” said Maria Neira, WHO’s Director of Environment, Climate Change and Health. “It's the number one risk factor for getting sick.”
The burden is heaviest in countries with fast-growing cities and weak regulatory frameworks. But Ms. Neira pointed out that the economic costs and health toll are rising globally. “Those chronic diseases are costing us well – to our health system and to our hospitals,” she said.
Despite the grim statistics, WHO leaders say solutions are at hand. Ms. Neira cited China’s progress in cutting emissions while continuing to grow economically. “At one point they demonstrated that you can reduce air pollution while still maintaining economic growth,” she said. “This argument that in order to tackle the causes of climate change, air pollution and environmental health, you need to invest and you don't obtain benefits immediately – that's not correct.”
Climate and health emergency
Indeed, air pollution is not just a public health issue but a key driver and symptom of the climate crisis. The burning of fossil fuels which feeds air pollution also releases greenhouse gases – adding to global warming.
“Climate change causes and air pollution causes overlap,” said Ms. Neira. “We have a lot to gain for health, for the economy, and for society, sustainable development, if we accelerate this transition.”
She emphasized that clean air solutions – including renewable energy, better urban design, and phasing out fossil fuels – also serve as climate mitigation strategies.
“This pollution, this particulate matter we are breathing every day…is coming from different sources, but fundamentally from the combustion of fossil fuels,” she said. “This can be avoided only by accelerating the transition to more renewables; cleaner sources of energy.”
Examples from Colombia and Europe
Hosts Colombia presented a slate of national initiatives, including cleaner fuels, zero-emission public transit, and a target to reduce carbon emissions 40 per cent by 2030.
“Air pollution claims more victims than violence itself. Poisoning our air costs lives in silence – this conference reinforces our determination to implement policies for both the environment and the health of our people,” said Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro.
He stressed the importance of smarter regulation and bridging the inequality gap with indigenous peoples, local and rural communities.
In Europe, where air pollution still causes 300,000 premature deaths annually, lawmakers are moving toward stricter regulation. “Pollution is an invisible pandemic. It is a slow-motion pandemic,” underscored Javier López, Vice President of the European Parliament’s Environment Committee.
The European Union recently adopted a new Air Quality Directive, halving legal air pollution thresholds and aiming to reduce pollution-related deaths by 30 per cent by 2030. “We have decided to come up with the air quality directive, which is part of the European Green Package,” Mr. López said.
Regional model, global lessons
Officials from the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) also took part in Cartagena, highlighting the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution as one of the most successful multilateral environmental agreements to date.
“The Air Convention…is a multilateral environmental agreement that was adopted in 1979 to address air pollution that crosses national borders,” said policy officer Carolin Sanz Noriega.
Since its adoption, the convention has expanded to 51 parties and achieved deep emissions cuts across the region. “Reducing emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides by 40 to 80% from 1990 levels in the UNECE region, and for more than 30% for particulate matter,” Ms. Sanz Noriega said.
She emphasized that the agreement’s success lies in its binding commitments, robust science, and long-standing trust-building mechanisms. “Countries implement the convention because it really brings benefits. It brings health benefits, environmental benefits, crop benefits. It has co-benefits for climate.”
Through the Forum for International Cooperation on Air Pollution, UNECE is now working with countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia to share scientific tools and regulatory approaches.
But a major challenge, especially in the Global South, remains technical capacity.
“We need to make sure that the countries are able to monitor air quality. That's the first step,” Ms. Neira said. “In Africa, unfortunately, we are still missing a lot of monitoring capacity…You cannot manage what you cannot measure.”
Prescribing clean air
The health sector provided one of the key takeaways of the conference. With millions of medical professionals and individuals already backing the WHO campaign, delegates emphasized that clean air must be recognized as central to disease prevention.
“We have 47 million signatures from health professionals, from patients, from advocates, from institutions, saying ‘I want to prescribe clean air’,” Ms. Neira said.
“I don’t want to treat the patients with diseases caused by exposure to toxic air. I want to make sure that my patients will not be exposed and therefore they will not develop those diseases.”
As the conference wrapped up, delegates left Cartagena emboldened with new partnerships, data, and policy options – but also a resounding moral imperative.
“The time to generate evidence [on air pollution] has passed,” underscored Ms. Neira. “We have a lot of it. No one can say anymore that they didn’t know.”