International Day of Clean Air for blue skies 2022

The third edition of the International Day of Clean Air for blue skies, which stresses the importance of clean air and the urgency to act to improve air quality and protect human health, will be commemorated on 7 September 2022. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 99 per cent of the world is now breathing polluted air. Air pollution is the greatest environmental threat to human health and causes 7 million premature deaths annually.

#TheAirWeShare

This year’s theme of “The Air We Share” focuses on the transboundary nature of air pollution, stressing the need for collective accountability and action. It also highlights the need for immediate and strategic international and regional cooperation for more efficient implementation of mitigation policies and actions to tackle air pollution. We all breathe the same air, and one atmosphere protects and sustains us all. Pollution is a global problem that we must act together to combat. It follows on from 2021’s theme of “Healthy Air, Healthy Planet”.

Air pollution is the greatest environmental threat to health, causing approximately 7 million premature deaths each year from diseases like stroke, heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer and acute respiratory infections. Many sources of air pollution also drive the climate crisis and damage nature and ecosystems. Air pollution adversely affects food security, social and gender parity, and economic development, keeping people entrenched in the cycle of poverty.

For more information, visit cleanairblueskies.org.