{"id":53425,"date":"2022-04-26T03:03:22","date_gmt":"2022-04-26T01:03:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/?p=53425"},"modified":"2026-06-29T15:26:33","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T13:26:33","slug":"time-clean-global-air-pollution-cleanairnow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/story\/53425\/time-clean-global-air-pollution-cleanairnow\/","title":{"rendered":"Time to clean up the global air pollution! We need #CleanAirNow"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A global movement for clean air is growing.<\/p>\n\n

Air pollution is the root cause of many serious health problems. During the week of World Health Day, from April 7 – April 10, citizens around the world took to the streets to highlight the impact of air pollution on their health and on the planet.  <\/p>\n\n

Though they were unified in their call for #CleanAirNOW, citizens demanded localised solutions to the air pollution crisis, such as creating dedicated public bus lanes, upgrading national PM2.5 standards, and strengthening transboundary haze regulation. <\/p>\n\n

\"Greenpeace
Greenpeace India volunteers organised weekend cycling training at Cubbon park in Bangaluru, India for first-time women cyclists from low income groups.
\u00a9 Raghu Kumar<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
\"Greenpeace
Greenpeace MENA staff in Lebanon hold up letters that read \u201cClean Air Now\u201d during the Global Week of Action for Clean Air and a Healthy Future for All.
\u00a9 Roland Salem<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
\"Greenpeace
Greenpeace Malaysia organised photo-ops involving hand drawn Malaysian figurines held up in front of iconic places in Malaysia to deliver the message that clean air is a basic human right.
\u00a9 Zarif Zahari\/ Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
\"Greenpeace
Greenpeace Indonesia activists hold a photo opp for an air pollution campaign as they carry boards that read “CLEAN AIR NOW!” in a tunnel in Jakarta. The activists demand the government to take the air pollution problem in Indonesia seriously, especially in big cities like Jakarta.
\u00a9 Jurnasyanto Sukarno \/ Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
\"More
More than 300 people joined the clean air ride with bikes to demand clean air in Ankara, \u0130stanbul, Hatay, Mersin and \u0130zmir.\nThey ditched the idea of car-dominated urban areas to create more space for bikes to combat air pollution.\n<\/figcaption>
\u00a9 Rana B\u00fcy\u00fckta\u015f<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
\"Greenpeace
Greenpeace India activists painted the message on the outer ring road in Bengaluru, India, demanding protection of bus priority lanes and their expansion.
\u00a9 Amruta S Nair<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
\"Thai
Thai citizens joined the global movement for clean air and asked the government to solve the growing air pollution problem in the country.
\u00a9 For Chiangmai Breath Group<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
\"Youth
Youth for Climate Tunisia in Tunisia organised a strike in the city of Tunis. Also present at the strike was Stop Pollution Gabes, a movement from the Gabes coastal community, who are campaigning against water, soil and air pollution in the city of Gabes.
\u00a9 Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
\"Greenpeace
Greenpeace South Africa volunteers participated in Global Week of Action to demand clean breathable air for all.
\u00a9 Tania Lombard<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n
\"Communities
Communities residing near coal power plants in Pangasinan, Quezon, Davao, and Cebu provinces, Philippines, including Metro Manila, demanded that the government raise the country\u2019s air quality standards and end its reliance on coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel.
\u00a9 Philippine Movement for Climate Justice (PMCJ)<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
\"In
In Thailand, civil society organisation representatives and environmental advocates filed a lawsuit against three public departments, the National Environment Board, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, and the Ministry of Industry, for neglecting their mandate to protect citizens\u2019 right to clean air.
\u00a9 Panumas Sanguanwong \/ Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
\"In
In Bogota, Colombia, volunteers highlighted the dangerous levels of air pollution from vehicles and the health impacts from it. “We are inhaling poison” was the key message.
\u00a9 Ricardo Garc\u00eda<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n
\"Greenpeace
Greenpeace volunteers in Morocco organised a photo op to demand clean air and used this opportunity to have an iftar (breaking Ramadan fast) together and talk about the need for citizens to come together to fight air pollution.
\u00a9 Sofiene Lahdheri \/ Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Last year the World Health Organisation (WHO) strengthened its air quality guidelines for the first time in 15 years.<\/p>\n\n

Unfortunately, the reality is that 97% of global cities failed to meet the guidelines last year, according to IQAir\u2019s 2021 World Air Quality report<\/a>. Moreover, many cities around the world suffer from a lack of available air quality data.<\/p>\n\n

Science tells us that there is no safe level of air pollution exposure.  Air pollution is responsible for many chronic diseases, including asthma, heart disease and stroke. <\/p>\n\n

Our health cannot wait. It is time for governments around the world to take action. Clean energy and equitable mobility solutions, including public transport, walking and cycling infrastructure, are necessary to tackle both air pollution and the climate crisis.<\/p>\n\n

Sign the petition:<\/a> We must phase out climate-wrecking fossil fuels. Together, let\u2019s demand innovative, sustainable solutions. Join the clean air movement, for our health, our future and for our planet. <\/p>\n\n

Erin Newport is International Communications Officer for Greenpeace East Asia.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our health cannot wait. It is time for governments around the world to take action.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":96,"featured_media":53427,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_planet4_optimize_post_is_variant":false,"_planet4_optimize_experiment_name":"","_planet4_optimize_variant_name":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"not set","p4_local_project":"not set","p4_basket_name":"not set","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70,73],"tags":[91],"p4-page-type":[59],"class_list":["post-53425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nature","category-social-and-economic-systems","tag-health","p4-page-type-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/96"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53425"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53448,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53425\/revisions\/53448"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53425"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=53425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}