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September 7: International Day of Clean Air for blue skies
New York: The first International Day of Clean Air for blue skies, is being observed today. A resolution to this effect was adopted at the Seventy-fourth session on Sustainable Development by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on December 19, 2019.
United Nations study shows 92% of our world is exposed to polluted air. Аir pollution is the single greatest environmental risk to human health and one of the main avoidable causes of death and disease globally. An estimated 7 million premature deaths every year across the world is caused by indoor and outdoor air pollution.
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Good air quality is crucial to our health, development and environment. It is also a universally recognised fact now that air pollution is causing detrimental impacts on climate, biodiversity and ecosystems. Environmental health is in fact, inextricably linked to human health.
Air pollution disproportionately affects women, children and older persons. What is important is that clean air is crucial for the health and day-to-day lives of all people.
Concerned by the negative impact of air pollution on ecosystems, the UNGA emphasises the need to strengthen international cooperation at the global, regional and subregional levels in various areas related to improving air quality, including the collection and utilization of data, joint research and development, and the sharing of best practices. It acknowledges the importance of and urgent need to raise public awareness at all levels and to promote and facilitate actions to improve air quality, bearing in mind that clean air is important for the health and livelihood of people.
Improving air quality can enhance climate change mitigation and that climate change mitigation efforts can improve air quality. In the outcome document of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, entitled “The future we want,” countries committed to promoting sustainable development policies that support healthy air quality in the context of sustainable cities and human settlements. “We recognize that reducing, inter alia, air, water and chemical pollution leads to positive effects on health,” the resolution adopted by the General Assembly in its 66th Session on July 27, 2012, stated.
Also, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which outlines a road map to achieving sustainable development, environmental protection and prosperity for all, recognizes that air pollution abatement is important to the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals. “We envisage a world in which every country enjoys sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth and decent work for all. A world in which consumption and production patterns and use of all natural resources – from air to land, from rivers, lakes and aquifers to oceans and seas – are sustainable,” it proclaimed. The Goal 12 included achieving the environmentally sound management of chemicals and all wastes throughout their life cycle, in accordance with agreed international frameworks, and significantly reducing their release to air, water and soil in order to minimize their adverse impacts on human health and the environment, by 2020.
On the occasion of the first International Day of Clean Air for blue skies, today, the United Nations has called upon everyone from governments and corporations to civil society and individuals to take action to reduce air pollution and bring transformative change in our lifestyles.
– globalbihari bureau
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