Global Action Plan in collaboration with the Met Office developed a set of high quality resources, co-created with target audiences, for clean air action
Air pollution is a public health crisis and needs to be treated as such. There is no doubt that in the UK, poor air quality is not being taken seriously enough. We are thrilled to partner with the Met Office to create credible and accessible public health information that has been informed by the audience we are trying to reach. We hope projects like this will further accelerate action on air pollution and act as a springboard for a more concerted effort from all tiers of government.
Sonja Graham, CEO
Global Action Plan’s vision is of connected, resilient, low carbon communities, where people's health is enhanced by their environment at home and in their local neighbourhood.
Over two years from 2022-2024, we collaborated with the Met Office to create a set of holistic, impactful yet accessible science-based resources on both indoor and outdoor air quality for several target audiences.
They included:
- Children and young people to help them better understand and act on air pollution.
- Groups of adults with different needs and circumstances in respect to air pollution knowledge (young adults 18-35 years old; adults aged 55+; adults with long term health conditions; adults in lower socioeconomic groups; parents of under 5s and pregnant women).
This project was part of the Met Office’s Strategic Priorities Fund Clean Air Programme to generate new interdisciplinary research and innovation tackling the air pollution challenge. This work comprised a series of interlinked research and development phases with consultation with an academic steering committee at each step of the process.
Resources were co-designed with panels from each of the target audiences above.
Key insights from this work were that:
- awareness of different sources of air pollution increased across all audiences, particularly in relation to sources of indoor air pollution
- Recognition of air pollution as a health harm increased across all audiences.
- Awareness of the actions individuals can take to reduce their contribution and/or exposure to air pollution increased across all audiences.
- A higher proportion of individuals believed their actions could make a difference after using the Clean Air Planner, across all audiences.
82%
awareness of air pollution as the biggest environmental threat to human health after using the Clean Air Planner (60% before)
90%+
groups recognised active travel (walking, cycling or wheeling instead of driving) as an effective way to reduce their contribution to air pollution
With thanks to the Met Office
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