100 days to COP28: open letter to President

The open letter, coordinated by Global Air Fund and signed by 47 NGOs, civil society organisations and health professionals, urges the president to deliver a transformative agenda and to take steps to reduce air pollution and deliver win-wins for climate, public health and economies.

Dear President-Designate Dr. Al Jaber,

With 100 days left until COP28 commences in the UAE, we write to you with a deep sense of urgency. We applaud your Presidency for spotlighting climate change’s health impacts by announcing the first-ever Health Day and health inter-ministerial meeting. However, this risks being an empty promise if the conference does not deliver substantive progress in tackling air pollution as the most tangible issue at the nexus of climate and health.

We already know the first Global Stocktake will be a devastating reality check, showing that countries are massively off track from their commitments to the Paris Agreement. For too long, COP and other international gatherings have failed to connect human and planetary health and to act on air pollution and its drivers. This inaction contributes to millions of premature deaths yearly, long and short-term health impacts and soaring economic costs.

We call on your Presidency to put air pollution firmly on the agenda and to catalyse national commitments and international funding to improve air quality.

Air pollution is a pervasive public health crisis and an accelerator of climate change. 99% of the world’s population breathes air that fails to meet WHO guidelines. The main drivers of air pollution are also sources of greenhouse gases, the largest culprit being the combustion of fossil fuels. This interconnectedness means that a full stop to burning fossil fuels is essential to unlock the enormous co-benefits of clean air. We emphasise that clean air cannot be solely achieved by carbon capture technologies, which do not address all toxic pollutants and particulates, such as black carbon which also accelerates warming. Only measures which result in better air quality will deliver the public health co-benefits of climate action.

The IPCC AR6 report highlights that clean air action will improve global public health to such a degree that it will pay for itself or even be cost-negative. It can save lives and reduce the burden of diseases on communities improving health and securing food systems. It will also improve population resilience to respiratory infections, which remain a major killer of young children.

To ensure a transformational COP that ‘supercharges solutions’ as you have pledged, it must deliver specific steps to reduce air pollution, as a way of tackling the climate emergency while delivering rapid win-wins for public health and economies. The Global Alliance on Health and Pollution identified the most effective interventions that improve both health, by reducing fine particulate matter (PM2.5), and climate, by reducing carbon dioxide emissions. The top five interventions identified are all urgently necessary:

• Replacing coal with renewable sources of energy for total power production;
• Replacing diesel and gasoline-powered vehicles with electric vehicles in both the public and private sector;
• Eliminating uncontrolled diesel emissions;
• Preventing crop burning;
• Preventing forest fires.

In addition, we call for comprehensive air quality monitoring to demonstrate progress towards WHO Air Quality Guideline levels and campaigns to demonstrate the benefits of clean air to health, families, and communities to further build public support for climate action.

Much like the climate crisis, air pollution also has disproportionate impacts on certain populations. Death rates from air pollution are highest in low- and middle-income countries. But as the climate, health and economic impacts of air pollution transcend international borders, it is incumbent for air quality to be integrated into global climate commitments and funding.

We call on you to ensure that air pollution and the co-benefits of cleaner air are recognised in the Global Stocktake, the Mitigation Work Programme, COP28 Cover Decision, and the Just Transition Work Programme. COP28 must deliver tangible progress to end all fossil fuel subsidies, as a way to unlock progress across the negotiations. We must redirect these vast sums, which currently inflict enormous damage on both climate and health, to accelerate mitigation actions and a just transition.

We, the undersigned, stand ready to help you deliver these actions and demonstrate the co-benefits of clean air and climate action.

Signed by:

1. AfriqAir
2. Air For Health, Bulgaria
3. AirBG.Info – a Project by Code: Bulgaria
4. AirQo
5. Association for the Promotion of Youth Leadership, Advocacy and Volunteerism Cameroon (APYLAV)
6. Asthma + Lung UK
7. Clean Air Asia
8. Clean Air Fund
9. Clean Air One Atmosphere
10. Climate Mental Health Network
11. EuroHealthNet
12. European Lung Foundation
13. European Respiratory Society
14. EV Klub Polska
15. Forum for the Future
16. Gaurab Basu, MD, MPH, Director of Education & Policy, Harvard Chan C- CHANGE
17. Global Black Maternal Health
18. Global Climate and Health Alliance
19. Global Health Visions
20. Global Youth Strategy (GYS) on Air Pollution and Climate Health
21. Health Care Without Harm
22. Health Environment and Climate Action Foundation
23. IKEA Foundation
24. Impact on Urban Health
25. Innovations and Access for Development Initiative (IADI)
26. Institute for Health and Democracy, Poland
27. International Youth Health Organization
28. Irish Doctors for Environment
29. Kari C. Nadeau, MD PhD, Chair, Department of Environmental Health, Harvard
30. T.H. Chan School of Public Health
31. Michał Kurtyka, President of COP 24
32. MMBSHS Trust, India
33. NCD Alliance
34. OpenAQ
35. Our Kids’ Climate
36. Polish Alternative Fuels Association
37. Ride for their Lives
38. Road Safety Partnership, Poland
39. Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, UK
40. Salud por Derecho, Spain
41. Shareaction
42. The Geneva Sustainability Centre
43. UK Health Alliance on Climate Change
44. UrbanBetter
45. Vital Strategies
46. West African Institute of Public Health
47. World Heart Federation