Clean Air Night
Clean Air Night is a national public awareness campaign that shines a light on the uncomfortable truth about wood burning by educating the public about the harms of lighting fires in our homes for our health and the environment.
People have different reasons for burning wood, but if everyone knew about the facts, would we see the same level of burning that we see today? Could providing information now reduce the future negative impacts on health? That’s why the information that Clean Air Night is bringing to the public is so necessary in helping to inform people’s choices.
Sarah Perman, Director of Public Health at Hertfordshire County Council, funder of the first Clean Air Night
Take Action
Use our Clean Air Night 2026 comms pack to share the facts about wood burning and spark a conversation across the country.
Lighting fires in our homes is one of the largest source of small particle air pollution in the UK, which can travel around your bloodstream and harm every organ in your body.
Wood burning also produces more harmful carbon emissions than oil or gas for the same amount of heat or energy, contributing to the climate crisis. We launched Clean Air Night in 2023 to bust key myths about wood burning by mobilising local authorities and organisations to share the facts with the public.
The first Clean Air Night was funded by founding partners Hertfordshire County Council, Lancaster City Council, Surrey Air Alliance and the Welsh Government.
More and more people are choosing to burn wood in their homes because they associate the glow of a fire with comfort or think it might save them money or be environmentally friendly.
But the uncomfortable truth is that wood burning actually:
- Harms your health: lighting fires in our homes is the largest source of harmful small particle air pollution in the UK.
- Harms the planet: wood burning creates more harmful carbon emissions than other forms of heating, contributing to climate change.
- Harms your wallet: wood burning is almost always more expensive than other forms of heating.
85
Local Authorities across the UK mentioned Clean Air Night 2025 on social media
92%
of people aware of Clean Air Night support the introduction of at least one measure to tackle air pollution form wood burning in their local area
65%
campaign awareness in London, and 28% across the UK as a whole
82,000
visits to our website to learn the facts about wood burning and get involved during Clean Air Night 2025
Why do we focus on domestic burning?
Over the past decade, the amount of harmful small particle air pollution caused by burning in the home has grown significantly, with the trend for wood burners being a major contributor. Even homes with the newest “ecodesign” wood burners are three times more polluted than those without.
Wood burning stoves cause serious and life-threatening illnesses, including heart and lung disease, diabetes, and dementia. Just a small reduction in the amount of harmful small particle air pollution created could prevent tens of thousands of cases of coronary heart disease and asthma in the UK.
Wood burning also releases more carbon emissions than other heating sources like oil or gas for the same amount of heat. It can take decades for trees to regrow and reabsorb the carbon emitted during burning wood, and in the meantime these emissions drive the climate crisis. Cutting down trees can also destroy forests, damage ecosystems and lead to the loss of plant and animal species.
Despite these dangers, most people in the UK don’t know that wood burning is bad for our health and the environment. We launched Clean Air Night in 2023 to spark a national conversation about the harms of wood burning.
It really has been so powerful to see so many organisations and advocates having this much-needed conversation about domestic burning in the public domain and hopefully this has given us all the confidence to keep talking and keep campaigning on this.
Larissa Lockwood, Director of Policy and Campaigns
We’ve chosen to support the Clean Air Night campaign because air pollution as we know is the single biggest environmental threat to public health in the UK, and domestic burning has a significant role to play in that.
Dr Melissa Parnell, Environmental Protection Officer and Air Quality Lead at Lancaster City
We are grateful for the support of our funders who are enabling the campaign to enhance public understanding and action on air pollution.
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