CCAC at WHO Second Global Conference on Air Pollution and Health – 25 March 2025

Opening Plenary of the Conference

The second WHO Global Conference on Air Pollution and Health opened yesterday in Bogotá, Colombia, with a powerful call to action: tackling air pollution as one of the world’s most urgent and solvable public health crises. From emotional testimonies to hard-hitting data and bold policy proposals, the first day set the tone for a week of collaboration and ambition. The CCAC joined global health and environmental leaders to highlight the dual benefits of tackling air pollution and climate change together, emphasizing that the solutions are not only known, but already underway in cities and countries around the world.

The conference opened with a welcome from the World Health Organization, the Government of Colombia and the Pan American Health Organization, followed by a series of powerful personal testimonies about the impacts of air pollution, including from Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, Founder of the Ella Roberta Foundation, who spoke on the loss of her young daughter Ella following an asthma attack induced by high air pollution.

The first plenary concluded with WHO’s Dr. Maria Neira and Heather Adair-Rohani setting the scene for the remainder of the week with key statistics: 

• In 2023 99.9% of world population was exposed to unhealthy air  
• Over 2 billion people are exposed to household air pollution every day due to the lack of access to clean cooking in the home  
• Air pollution is among the top 10 global health risk factors, following only behind high blood pressure in the top risk factors for premature death 

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Dr. Neira emphasized the importance of an integrated approach on the pollutants that cause air pollution and climate change, noting that the same sources are responsible for both. Heather Adair-Rohani spoke about the need to work collaboratively across sectors and organizations to achieve our common goals – noting the work of CCAC amongst others. 

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To close the first plenary, WHO challenged countries to commit to reducing the health impacts from air pollution by 50% by 2040.

Quotes from Opening Plenary and Scene Setting

Dr. Maria Neira (on progress since the first global conference in 2018): “Have we advanced? Yes.

Have we advanced to the level the problem requires? No.”

Dr. Maria Neira: “This meeting is about one thing: air pollution is killing us, and it is causing diseases. There are no excuses. We need to leave this room with progress and commitments.”

Launch of a World Bank Global Flagship Report on Air Pollution

Later in the day, the World Bank presented the findings of their Global Flagship Report on Air Pollution: Accelerating Access to Clean Air for a Liveable Planet. The report shows that halving the number of people exposed to PM 2.5 concentrations above 25 ug/m3 globally by 2040 is both possible and economically sound. It also strongly emphasizes the importance of coordinated action on both climate change and air pollution – including reducing emissions of super pollutants – to achieve results quickly and maximize benefits.

The report identifies three key actions to accelerate progress: 

1. Strengthening air quality governance.
2. Ensuring solid information on air quality and urgently fill data gaps.
3. Supplementing scarce public resources with private investment to ensure clean air can be affordable.  

Head of the CCAC Secretariat, Martina Otto, moderated a discussion between the Clean Air Fund and SEMARNAT, on the importance of increasing ambition on air pollution. Sergio Zirath Hernández Villaseñor, Director General of Industry, Clean Energy and Air Quality Management at SEMARNAT, highlighted the importance of translating science into policy, facilitating cooperations between different sectors and jurisdictions and bringing together stakeholders from government, civil society and academia around a shared commitment to addressing air pollution. Jane Burston, CEO of the Clean Air Fund, identified factors that could help to scale up funding for air quality including funding organizations more explicitly accounting for the air quality co-benefits of projects, communicating the economic gains associated with improving air quality and expanding use of non-traditional financial instruments.

Super Pollutants and Air Pollution: Tackling the Invisible Threat

The second CCAC-sponsored event of the Conference took place Tuesday evening with Head of the Secretariat, Martina Otto, leading a dynamic discussion on how reducing super pollutants can help clean the air we breathe.

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She began by highlighting the success story of Medellin. Not long ago, the city was battling severe air pollution - trapped in a thick layer of smog so potent that simply stepping outside was a health hazard. Instead of accepting pollution as the cost of development, the city took bold action. It invested in electric public transport, expanded green corridors which act as a barrier against dangerous particulate matter and cool down the city, and targeted the worst polluters directly. Within just a few years, Medellín cut its fine particle pollution by nearly 40%, transforming the health of its people and the future of the city, and successfully reduced urban temperatures by over 2 degrees Celsius.  

To close, she spotlighted the opportunity presented by super pollutants to clean up the air, improve health and stop climate change – all through proven approaches in key sectors including fossil fuels, transportation and shipping, cooling, agriculture and waste management.

Following the opening remarks, a panel shared their insights on how reducing super pollutants can help clean the air we breathe while also addressing climate change. 

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Gerry Eijkemans, Director of Social and Environmental Determinants for Health Equity for PAHO, discussed the importance of including equity considerations from the very beginning of air quality and climate management planning to avoid leaving people behind or disadvantaging already vulnerable populations. She spoke of efforts in cities to increase active transport and the need to consider how to meet the needs of lower-income individuals who might live too far away to walk or cycle to work. She also explained that household energy is still a significant source of exposure in many countries, noting 17 million people in Latin America alone are using fossil fuels for cooking or heating. It is essential that interventions to reduce emissions from household energy be designed in consultation with communities to ensure they are not just feasible but also acceptable to the people using them.

Oscar Vázquez, General Coordinator of Dissemination, Monitoring and Evaluation of Public Policies for Climate Change, National Institute of Ecology and Climate Change (INECC Mexico), spoke about Mexico’s achievements in addressing air pollution, particularly in Mexico City.

Leonard Tedd, Deputy Department Head - Human Development Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO UK), emphasized the importance of international and regional collaboration, noting the UK’s support for last year’s UNEA resolution. He discussed the importance of outcomes of that resolution -- including CCAC’s Air Quality Management Exchange (AQMx), the Africa Clean Air Programme and UNEP’s Global Air Quality Cooperation Network – in supporting progress toward cleaner air and action on super pollutants globally. He noted that it is critical for governments to learn from what has and hasn’t worked elsewhere, which was one of the factors driving the UK’s investment in AQMx.

Adalberto Maluf, National Secretary for Urban Environment, Water Resources and Environmental Quality (Brazil), and CCAC Co-Chair, highlighted Brazil’s cross-government approach environmental planning and the need to use science to inform policy. He noted that the Brazilian government had recognized that super pollutants presented an opportunity to address many problems – climate change, air quality, waste management, energy independence and economic development – through coordinated policy and encouraged other countries to include super pollutants in their NDCs. He also raised the importance of engaging with Ministers of Finance, Central Banks and Treasuries to implement the plans developed by environmental and health professionals.  

Jane Burston, Clean Air Fund CEO, provided data on clean air finance, noting only 1% of overseas development aid was spent on air quality and only 3% of international climate finance was reported as having air quality benefits. Given the reality of limited resources, she explained that there was a need to better leverage climate finance, better communicate the economic case for acting on air pollution and to use super pollutants as the way to more closely link air quality projects to climate change.  

Quotes from Super Pollutant Side Event

Martina Otto: “At the heart of our mission is the understanding that air pollution and climate change aren’t separate problems—they’re deeply connected.  By tackling them together, we can protect the health of our communities and slow the pace of climate change at the same time.”

Martina Otto: “We don’t have to wait. Neither for the perfect data on the quality of our air.  

Nor for new technologies: solutions that work are already here. It’s about the choices we all make today, each of us.  To demand better policies and investments in clean energy, and to push industries to eliminate these dangerous pollutants.  Our future is in our hands. We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to turn the tide on air pollution and climate change—at the same time.  Medellín proved it’s possible.  Now, it’s up to us to scale that success. City by city, country by country.”

Opening of the WHO Second Global Conference on Air Pollution and Health Esplanade

Tuesday night marked the opening of the Esplanade, featuring several exhibits that highlight the impact of air pollution globally. Among the highlights was the CCAC-sponsored Pollution Pods, an immersive installation that allows visitors to experience the realities of air pollution across five key sectors: transport, energy, industry, agriculture, and waste.

Attendees also had the opportunity to see live street art come to life by renowned Brazilian muralist Eduardo Kobra, created exclusively for the conference, through a photography exhibition of air pollutions impact and solutions (sponsored Clean Air Fund and Climate Visuals). Additionally, a clean air tunnel installation by the Clean Air Fund highlighted innovative urban air quality solutions, while an animated projection by Clean Air Fund showed the journey from pollution to clean air.