Clean Air and the Environment Bill

The document advocates for a specific amendment to the UK Environment Bill to ensure the country adopts the 2005 WHO air quality guidelines for PM2.5, which recommend an annual mean concentration of no more than 10 µg/m3. It argues that current UK legal limits, derived from EU Directives, are twice as high as WHO recommendations and are insufficient to protect public health. The briefing highlights that approximately 15 million people in the UK live in areas exceeding WHO guidelines, including 8,549 schools and colleges. It asserts that achieving these targets by 2030 is technically feasible, citing Defra and King's College London analysis, and argues that setting these parameters on the face of the Bill prevents delays in target-setting that would otherwise occur until October 2022.

• The proposed amendment to the Environment Bill seeks to ensure the PM2.5 air quality target is less than or equal to the 2005 WHO guidelines, with a deadline for attainment by 1 January 2030.
• The 2005 WHO guidelines for PM2.5 recommend an annual mean concentration of no more than 10 micrograms per cubic metre (µg/m3) to ensure a minimum level of health protection.
• Existing UK legal limits for PM2.5 are based on an EU Directive and are twice as high as the levels recommended by the WHO, making them less ambitious than standards in the USA, Australia, Sweden, Norway, and Switzerland.
• Approximately 15 million people in the UK live in areas where average PM2.5 levels exceed WHO guidelines, and this includes 8,549 schools and colleges.
• Technical analysis commissioned by Defra in 2019 concluded that meeting WHO guidelines for PM2.5 across the UK is technically feasible, and existing commitments could achieve 95% of the recommendation.
• Analysis by King’s College London indicates that achieving WHO air quality guidelines by 2030 is feasible even in London, the most polluted city in the UK.
• Without the amendment, the target-setting process within the Environment Bill means the new PM2.5 target would not be established until October 2022, potentially delaying action for nearly two years.

APA

ClientEarth (2021). Clean Air and the Environment Bill. https://www.clientearth.org/media/eqqixwzc/environment-bill-healthy-air-campaign-briefing-on-the-who-amendment-january-2021.pdf

Chicago

ClientEarth. Clean Air and the Environment Bill. 2021. https://www.clientearth.org/media/eqqixwzc/environment-bill-healthy-air-campaign-briefing-on-the-who-amendment-january-2021.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=ClientEarth |title=Clean Air and the Environment Bill |date=January 2021 |url=https://www.clientearth.org/media/eqqixwzc/environment-bill-healthy-air-campaign-briefing-on-the-who-amendment-january-2021.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{clientearth2021clean, author = {{ClientEarth}}, title = {{Clean Air and the Environment Bill}}, institution = {ClientEarth}, year = {2021}, month = jan, url = {https://www.clientearth.org/media/eqqixwzc/environment-bill-healthy-air-campaign-briefing-on-the-who-amendment-january-2021.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }