The more developed large cities have air quality that is much more harmful to health due to the high concentrations of gases in the urban atmosphere. The burning of fossil fuels by the energy industries, the traffic of vehicles discouraged by the large number of people who use the car, makes the city a authentic polluting submarine.
En the Habitat III Conference in Quito, Representatives of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Climate Coalition have called for the development of the concept of "Green city with clean air" due to the poor state of many cities in terms of the quality of the air that their citizens breathe.
A study has been conducted by researchers from both organizations that prioritizes health as a "Pulse of the New Urban Agenda". That is, policies and techniques must be developed to have cleaner air to increase the health and quality of life of citizens. The report written by the experts bases the success of these policies if they are directed to the good health of citizens and above all to a vision of cities as sources of health, safer, greener and more equitable. All these guidelines to follow have an idea aimed at sustainable development in the future.
The named initiative has the name of "Breathe Life" and it is a global awareness and communication campaign promoted by the WHO and the Climate Coalition. Both organizations plan to be able to convey to people the importance of having good air quality in cities since high pollution has harmful effects on people's health and is the cause of many cardio-respiratory diseases.
The executive director of the UN Environment, Erik Solheim He is also part of the Coalition, and has stated that it is necessary to start making the decisions that are necessary to mitigate the effects of air pollution in cities.
As examples of clean cities, he Norway. In Norway there are political commitments and social participation that help tackle the problem of pollution and have managed to improve air quality, to such an extent that it is considered a model to follow. Solheim has indicated that public policies should focus on encouraging the population to reduce energy consumption at home, to use more public transport, etc. These guidelines can help reduce the pollution of the air you breathe.
Around the world, the revolutionary new idea for sustainable development is "green cities with clean air." tone skogen, Secretary of State of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has expressed concern that more than six million people worldwide die every year from air pollution. He also highlighted the efforts that have been made in Norway to have healthier environmental quality standards, especially that of contributing to the energy transition, forgetting polluting energy sources and giving way to renewable energy.
Marcelo mena, Chilean Undersecretary of the Environment and co-president of the Climate Coalition, has indicated that one of the keys to solving the problems of air pollution is to be able to measure the factors that generate it. The more measurements and information available on the sources that cause pollution, the sooner measures can be taken and public policies created to curb pollution.
Finally, Mena highlighted that in Chile strategies were applied to counteract pollution. Among those applied was the prohibition of the use of firewood and diesel in heating homes. Likewise, he said that initiatives for clean air must be closely related to strategies to address climate change. For Mena, the goal is to have "Clean air and a safe climate".