Each 7 September is celebrated as United Nations (UN) International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies.

The Thammasat University Library collection includes books about different aspects of clean air.

The UN website suggests:

Invest in clean air now 

Air pollution is the biggest environmental health risk of our time. It also exacerbates climate change, causes economic losses, and reduces agricultural productivity. It knows no borders – everyone has a responsibility to protect our atmosphere and ensure healthy air for all. By collaborating across borders, sectors, and silos, we can reduce air pollution through collective investments of time, resources and efforts. This International Day of Clean Air for blue skies, we call upon everyone—from governments and corporations to civil society and individuals—to Invest in #CleanAirNow. By tackling air pollution proactively, we can achieve transformative change and secure healthy air for all.

A Twofold Problem

Health impact: tiny, invisible particles of pollution penetrate deep into our lungs, bloodstream and bodies. These pollutants are responsible for about one-third of deaths from stroke, chronic respiratory disease, and lung cancer, as well as one quarter of deaths from heart attack. Ground-level ozone, produced from the interaction of many different pollutants in sunlight, is also a cause of asthma and chronic respiratory illnesses.

Climate impact: short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) are among those pollutants most linked with both health effects and near-term warming of the planet. They persist in the atmosphere for as little as a few days or up to a few decades, so reducing them can have an almost immediate health and climate benefits for those living in places where levels fall.

Preventing and reducing air pollution 

Аir pollution is the single greatest environmental risk to human health and one of the main avoidable causes of death and disease globally, with some estimated 6.5 million premature deaths (2016) across the world attributed to indoor and outdoor air pollution. Particularly in developing countries, air pollution disproportionately affects women, children and the elderly, especially in low-income populations as they are often exposed to high levels of ambient air pollution and indoor air pollution from cooking and heating with wood fuel and kerosene.

Аir pollution is a global problem with far-reaching impacts owing to its transport over long distances. In the absence of aggressive intervention, the number of premature deaths resulting from ambient air pollution is estimated to be on track to increase by more than 50 per cent by 2050.

Society bears a high cost of air pollution due to the negative impacts on the economy, work productivity, healthcare costs and tourism, among others. Hence, the economic benefits of investing in air pollution control cannot be overestimated, and it must be understood that there is also an economic rationale to act and that cost-effective solutions exist to address air pollution.

Poor air quality is a challenge in the context of sustainable development for all countries, in particular in cities and urban areas in developing countries, with levels of air pollution that are higher than the limits set out in the World Health Organization air quality guidelines. 

Some air pollutants, such as black carbon, methane and ground-level ozone, are also short-lived climate pollutants and are responsible for a significant portion of air pollution-related deaths, as well as impacts on crops and hence food security, so their reduction has co-benefits for the climate.

International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies

UN Member States recognize the need to substantially reduce the number of deaths and illnesses from hazardous chemicals and air, water and soil pollution and contamination by 2030, as well as to reduce the adverse per capita environmental impact of cities, including by paying special attention to air quality and municipal and other waste management by 2030.

Clean air is important for the health and day-to-day lives of people, while air pollution is the single greatest environmental risk to human health and one of the main avoidable causes of death and disease globally. Air pollution disproportionately affects women, children and older persons, and also has a negative impact on ecosystems.

Today, the international community acknowledges that improving air quality can enhance climate change mitigation and that climate change mitigation efforts can improve air quality.

Encouraged by the increasing interest of the international community in clean air, and emphasizing the need to make further efforts to improve air quality, including reducing air pollution, to protect human health, the General Assembly decided to designate 7 September as the International Day of Clean Air for blue skies.

Clear Air and Sustainable Development Goals 

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. 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.

Part of the activism to achieve these aims is the BreatheLife Campaign.

Its website explains:

BreatheLife mobilizes cities and individuals to protect our health and our planet from the effects of air pollution. It combines public health and climate change expertise with guidance on implementing solutions to air pollution in support of global development goals. The campaign is supported by WHO, UNEP, the World Bank and the Climate and Clean Air Coalition. BreatheLife’s growing network includes 76 cities, regions, and countries.

WHAT WE DO

Our strategies to create change

• Connect cities

Provide a platform for cities to share best practices and demonstrate progress in their journey to meeting WHO air quality targets by 2030

• Increase monitoring

Work with municipalities to expand monitoring efforts that can keep citizens informed and facilitate more sustainable urban development

• Accelerate solutions

Build demand for new solutions that are working and support municipalities in effectively implementing them in their own cities

• Empower individuals

Educate people about the burden air pollution poses to our health and our climate and provide meaningful ways to take action both locally and globally

On the BreatheLife website, visitors can look up data for cities such as Bangkok.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has declared that air quality is a top developmental priority:

“Air pollution is a global problem, which impacts human health, planetary health and climate change,” said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP. We need to ensure that clean air is available to all, regardless of geography or socioeconomic status. To do that, the world will need to take decisive, urgent action.” […]

Developed countries have greatly improved their air quality in recent years but many developing countries, still reliant on wood and other solid fuels for cooking and heating, lag behind. The result is that many vulnerable and marginalized persons also suffer from the worst air quality.

Here are thoughts about blue skies by three poets represented in the TU Library:

And they were canopied by the blue sky,

So cloudless, clear, and purely beautiful,

That God alone was to be seen in Heaven.

• Lord Byron, The Dream, Stanza 4.

“Darkly, deeply, beautifully blue,”

As some one somewhere sings about the sky.

• Lord Byron, Don Juan (1818-24), Canto IV, Stanza 110.

The soft blue sky did never melt

Into his heart; he never felt

The witching of the soft blue sky!

• William Wordsworth, Peter Bell, Part I, Stanza 15.

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)