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Air quality
We are campaigning for better air quality for all.
Clean air is fundamental to our health and wellbeing. Yet, air pollution in the UK remains one of the most serious environmental health risks. In 2023, government Ministers confirmed that up to 43,000 deaths per year were linked to exposure to PM2.5 air pollution - tiny particles that can penetrate deep into the lungs. The UK Health and Security Agency has also identified air pollution as the largest environmental risk to public health.
This is why we are campaigning for better air quality for all.
We are proud members of the Healthy Air coalition, working alongside others to push for stronger action on air pollution. We also supported Clean Air Night 2025, helping raise awareness about the dangers of domestic wood burning and indoor air pollution.
To support this work, we welcome resources like the House of Commons Library research briefing on air quality, which provides valuable insight into the current policy landscape and ongoing challenges.
What are we doing?
CIEH has been consistently engaging widely across the nations to push this issue to the top of the government agenda.
Over the last few years, we campaigned hard around the Government's flagship Environment Bill, which is the first of its kind for over 20 years. We focussed on two key elements of the Bill - air quality, and the proposed new Office of Environmental Protection (OEP). We demanded the UK Government introduce more ambitious targets for reducing emissions of PM2.5 and other harmful pollutants, and have met with the Chief Medical Officer to talk about the need to widen the discourse on air quality to include domestic wood burning and agricultural activity. So far, the Government has simply not done enough to address this growing crisis.
We've been working closely with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to get the views of our members to the heart of government, and to feed into their consultations and roundtables with stakeholders. We have worked closely with colleagues at the Association of Directors of Public Health, and the Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning and Transport in emphasising the integrated way in which air quality impacts local authorities and public health. We’ve secured opportunities for CIEH representatives to give evidence to the Environmental Audit Committee on indoor and outdoor air quality targets and have been building alliances with other campaigning organisations, such as Client Earth, the Nitrogen Collaboration and the Healthy Air Campaign.
In 2023, we responded to two key consultations which impact upon air quality. The first of these was from DLUHC around proposed changes to the National Planning Policy Framework. The second was Defra's Draft Air Quality Strategy which focused on the roles and responsibilities of local authorities.
We provided written evidence to the Climate Change, Environment and Infrastructure Senedd Committee on the recently tabled Environment (Air Quality and Soundscapes) (Wales) Bill. We also secured the opportunity for a number of our members to provide oral evidence to the committee and provided written evidence to the Environmental Audit Committee on indoor and outdoor air quality targets, securing the opportunity for one of our members to provide oral evidence to this committee as well.
Beyond this, in 2022 we responded to the Draft National Air Pollution Control Programme consultation as well as to Defra’s consultation on Environmental Targets. In 2021, we responded to the consultation by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs: A Clean Air Strategy for Northern Ireland. In 2020, we made a submission to the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Parliamentary Committee inquiry into air quality and also to the Air Quality Expert Group at Defra to inform their estimation of changes in air pollution emissions, concentrations and exposure during the COVID-19 outbreak in the UK.
We're working hard to make sure that CIEH is at the centre of efforts to improve air quality across the UK. We work closely with our members to ensure that their voices are heard and that local authorities have the resources they need to fulfil their duties.
We're also proud to see our members leading the way on this issue. Matt Clarke, a member of CIEH, recently contributed to a British Safety Council feature highlighting how we can improve air quality now and into the future.
Why is it so important?
Evidence shows that poor air quality (both indoor and outdoor) contributes to illnesses such as cancer, stroke, asthma and heart disease, and there are strong associations with chronic conditions such as obesity, dementia and diabetes. These chronic conditions are on the rise in the UK, and it's the most vulnerable in our society – such as children and the elderly – that are at the most risk.
The Department of Health's Committee on the Medical Aspects of Air Pollution has reported that long-term exposure to poor air quality currently causes as many as 40,000 additional deaths per year – a figure that we find unacceptable. And with air quality having the highest impact on lower socio-economic groups, we believe that air pollution is not only a health issue but a matter of social justice.
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