The United Nations Environment Assembly,
Recalling its resolution 1/7 of 27 June 2014 on strengthening the role of the United Nations Environment Programme in promoting air quality and its resolution 3/8 of 6 December 2017 on preventing and reducing air pollution to improve air quality globally, and noting World Health Assembly resolution WHA68.8 of 26 May 2015, entitled “Health and the environment: addressing the health impact of air pollution”, and General Assembly resolution 74/212 of 19 December 2019 on the International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies,
Recognizing that air pollution, including fine particulate matter and tropospheric ozone and their precursors, is one of the greatest environmental risks to health and that populations living in vulnerable situations are disproportionately exposed to air pollution and have a higher risk of associated negative health impacts and premature death,
Underscoring the need to elevate efforts at all levels of government, by environmental and health organizations and by the private sector to collaborate on addressing the significant impacts of air pollution, in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goals,
Acknowledging the progress achieved by existing bodies and initiatives that facilitate cooperation on in-country and transboundary air pollution, including the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution;2 the meteorological synthesizing centres of the Economic Commission for Europe and its Task Force for International Cooperation on Air Pollution; the Integrated Assessment of Air Pollution and Climate Change for Sustainable Development in Africa3 and its proposed Africa clean air programme; the Climate and Clean Air Coalition to Reduce Short-lived Climate Pollutants and its recently launched Clean Air Flagship 2024–2026 fact sheet; the air quality work programme under the Fifth Montevideo Programme for the Development and Periodic Review of Environmental Law; and the Acid Deposition Monitoring Network in East Asia,
Recognizing that air pollution also has significant adverse effects on ecosystems, leading to loss of biodiversity,
Acknowledging that addressing air pollution results in multiple benefits to human health, the economy, ecosystems and the climate, and that efforts across sectors are needed to improve air quality,
Acknowledging also that improving air quality can result in climate co-benefits and that climate change mitigation efforts can result in air quality co-benefits,
1. Encourages Member States to accelerate efforts to implement the relevant provisions of Environment Assembly resolution 3/8, including by developing national air quality programmes and setting national ambient air quality standards, bearing in mind the most recent air quality guidelines of the World Health Organization, as appropriate to their national circumstances;
2. Requests the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, subject to the availability of resources, to form and facilitate a cooperation network on air quality, working with interested Member States, members of specialized agencies, secretariats of United Nations entities, including of the United Nations regional commissions and relevant multilateral environmental agreements,4 and international, regional and subregional bodies, organizations and initiatives,5 that would, inter alia:
(a) Raise awareness of the multiple impacts of air pollution and the importance of actions to mitigate it;
(b) Work with Member States to build and enhance national air quality monitoring capacity, including the use of low-cost sensors of proper quality, passive samplers and satellite data, and digital solutions, in conjunction with monitoring reference equipment;
(c) Share relevant knowledge, information and expertise, best practices, interactive online tools and data, and air quality maps through an online platform;
(d) Work with Member States with advanced air quality management capabilities to share their expertise and knowledge regarding all elements of air quality management;
(e) Support capacity-building for addressing air pollution, including through mutual learning from, inter alia, available science, technical expertise and information, including those related to co-benefits of nitrogen management and climate plans;
(f) Support the development of regional air quality arrangements, including an Africa clean air programme, and enhance, as appropriate, existing regional air quality initiatives, including those referred to earlier in the present paragraph;
3. Requests the Executive Director, subject to the availability of resources, to provide an updated global online platform for information sharing and communication;
4. Invites Member States, regional economic integration organizations, intergovernmental organizations, the private sector, including industry, foundations and non-governmental organizations, and other stakeholders to help mobilize means of implementation in order to address air pollution, particularly in developing countries;
5. Invites regional and subregional cooperation bodies and initiatives, as well as financing institutions, to consider developing and implementing regional solutions to address air pollution issues, including by:
(a) Coordinating efforts to develop and implement air quality action plans and policies;
(b) Considering setting and cooperating on goals for regional air quality improvement;
6. Requests the Executive Director to report to the United Nations Environment Assembly at its seventh session on the implementation of the present resolution.