London needs a Clean Air Mayor
Everyone in London is exposed to unsafe levels of air pollution
More lives are cut short in London due to toxic air than in any other English region, with air pollution contributing to 4,000 premature deaths in London every year.
There are stark inequalities in who is impacted by this invisible killer. The most deprived communities in London live in the most polluted areas. But these people – who have the most to lose from air pollution – are often the least likely to be creating that pollution themselves.
Through the Clean Air New Voices project (funded by Trust for London), Global Action Plan is working with individual campaigners, groups and organisations who represent communities most impacted by air pollution across London, amplifying their call for a Clean Air Mayor in the upcoming elections.
The changes outlined in the manifesto offer a light of hope for our community, addressing the clear environmental injustices we face. The proposed initiatives, including clean air zones, investment in green spaces, and stricter regulations on polluters, have the potential to transform our neighbourhood into a clean, healthy place to breathe.
Clean air is not a privilege for the few but a basic human right that all should enjoy.
Moussa Amine Sylla, Haringey
Listening to the communities most affected by air pollution
Our Clean Air New Voices network – who work on a range of issues including social, racial, and environmental inequalities, housing and health – have listened to their communities to understand how air pollution is affecting them, and what change they would like to see.
This listening exercise revealed a clear and urgent demand to deliver clean air in the capital, with action needed on traffic, indoor air quality, access to green space, and wood burning.
Calling for clean air in the capital
Our Clean Air New Voices network is calling on mayoral candidates to commit to delivering more ambitious and bolder policies to clean up our air.
By 2028, we are calling for the next Mayor of London to:
- Provide sustainable transport appropriate for a global city.
- Ensure every Londoner lives in a well-ventilated home free from mould, damp, and other sources of indoor air pollution.
- Champion the phase-out of unnecessary wood burning in the capital.
- Prioritise the creation and protection of green and blue spaces, especially in London’s most deprived communities.
Our Clean Air New Voices network is calling for fair policies that ensure the cost of delivering this change is picked up by those doing the polluting, and for those most impacted and vulnerable to the impacts of air pollution to be involved in developing the policies needed to tackle it.
The Clean Air New Voices created a clean air manifesto for London’s mayoral candidates in the 2024 election
Help us to amplify the voices of those most affected by air pollution
We need a Clean Air Mayor to deliver a more equal, healthier, and prosperous future for London. If you agree, share our manifesto to ensure that the voices of those most affected by air pollution in our capital are heard. We have put together a social media pack to help you show that communities across London want more ambitious action on air pollution – download it below.
Suggested text for Twitter/X/BlueSky
Communities affected by #AirPollution are calling on the next Mayor of London to deliver ambitious clean air policies – from providing sustainable transport to ensuring every Londoner is protected from indoor air pollution in their homes 📣 #CleanAirMayor @globalactplan
Find out more 👇
https://www.globalactionplan.org.uk/clean-air-mayor
Suggested text for Facebook/instagram/LinkedIn
Londoners who have the most to lose from air pollution are often the least likely to be creating that pollution themselves ☁️
Campaigners who represent the communities most impacted by air pollution across London have come together to call for a #CleanAirMayor in the upcoming London elections.
Supported by Global Action Plan, these campaigners are calling on the next Mayor of London to deliver ambitious clean air policies, including:
-
Providing sustainable transport fit for a global city
-
Ensuring every Londoner is protected from damp, mould and indoor air pollution in their homes
-
Championing the phase-out of unnecessary wood burning
-
Prioritising the creation and protection of green and blue spaces
If you think everyone should be able to breathe clean air in our capital, share this post to amplify their voices 📣
Read their full manifesto 👇
Suggested text for Twitter/X/BlueSky
Suggested text for Facebook/instagram/LinkedIn
Children in the UK spend most of their time indoors, where they are exposed to a range of sources of harmful indoor air pollution – including smoking, damp and mould, and home burning 🏠
Global Action Plan has brought together campaigners who represent the communities most impacted by air pollution across London, amplifying their call for a #CleanAirMayor in the upcoming London elections.
These communities are calling on the next Mayor of London to ensure every Londoner lives in a well-ventilated home free from mould, damp, and other sources of indoor air pollution.
Suggested text for Twitter/X/BlueSky
Traffic is the biggest source of London’s #AirPollution, despite 42% of London households not owning a car or van 🚗 Londoners are calling on the next Mayor to provide sustainable transport fit for a global city 📣 #CleanAirMayor @globalactplan
Find out more 👇
https://www.globalactionplan.org.uk/clean-air-mayor
Suggested text for Facebook/instagram/LinkedIn
Road vehicles are the single biggest cause of London’s air pollution, despite 42% of London households not owning cars or vans 🚗
Global Action Plan has brought together campaigners who represent the communities most impacted by air pollution across London, amplifying their call for a #CleanAirMayor in the upcoming London elections.
These communities are calling on the next Mayor of London to provide sustainable transport appropriate for a global city by 2028 – including public transport that is affordable and accessible, improved walking and wheeling routes across the capital, and school streets for all London schools.
If you think everyone should be able to breathe clean air in our capital, share this post to amplify their voices 📣
Read their full manifesto 👇
Suggested text for Twitter/X/BlueSky
1 in 5 Londoners do not have a garden, with poorer residents and those from ethnic minorities less likely to have access to green spaces 🌳 Londoners are calling on their next Mayor to prioritise the creation and protection of green and blue spaces in the capital’s most deprived communities 📣 #CleanAirMayor @globalactplan
Find out more 👇
https://www.globalactionplan.org.uk/clean-air-mayor
Suggested text for Facebook/instagram/LinkedIn
1 in 5 Londoners do not have a garden, with poorer residents and those from ethnic minorities less likely to have access to green spaces 🌳
Global Action Plan has brought together campaigners who represent the communities most impacted by air pollution across London, amplifying their call for a #CleanAirMayor in the upcoming London elections.
These communities are calling on the next Mayor of London to prioritise the creation and protection of green and blue spaces in London’s most deprived communities.
If you think everyone should be able to breathe clean air in our capital, share this post to amplify their voices 📣
Read their full manifesto 👇
Suggested text for Twitter/X/BlueSky
Lighting fires in our homes is the largest source of harmful small particle #AirPollution in the UK 🔥 Londoners are calling on their next Mayor to champion the phase-out of unnecessary wood burning in the capital 📣 #CleanAirMayor @globalactplan
Find out more 👇
https://www.globalactionplan.org.uk/clean-air-mayor
Suggested text for Facebook/instagram/LinkedIn
Lighting fires in our homes is the largest source of harmful small particle air pollution in the UK. Most people who burn wood live in towns and cities and are from more affluent households, but everyone experiences the consequences 🔥
Global Action Plan has brought together campaigners who represent the communities most impacted by air pollution across London, amplifying their call for a #CleanAirMayor in the upcoming London elections.
These communities are calling on the next Mayor of London to champion the phase out of unnecessary wood burning in the capital by 2028.
If you think everyone should be able to breathe clean air in our capital, share this post to amplify their voices 📣
Read their full manifesto 👇
Who are the Clean Air New Voices?
The Clean Air New Voices project (funded by Trust for London) aims to empower individuals and organizations who represent the communities most affected by air pollution to advocate for clean air in our capital. Global Action Plan is equipping the project participants with the skills and knowledge they need to effectively campaign for clean air policies, amplify the voices of their community, and drive systemic change.
To find out more, contact us at [email protected]
Moussa Sylla
Moussa is a ‘born Champion’ community organiser and trainer and has worked with communities in London for over a decade. In Haringey he consulted and engaged with communities, organised over 3000 residents, worked with hundreds of community leaders, and built strong relationships with local groups and charities. Moussa has also worked closely with vulnerable young people, ex-offenders, and migrant people to develop new models of sustainable development by promoting local economies run by local people, using local expertise.
Maeve, The Equality Trust
The Equality Trust is committed to improving quality of life for all by dismantling structural inequalities of income, wealth and power. Their London Organiser, Maeve, works with community groups across Brent, Newham, Ealing, Southwark and Westminster, to imagine new possibilities, and develop mechanisms to hold councils to account. They recognise that air quality and pollution is an inequality issue, intersecting with other inequalities related to housing, access to green and blue spaces, and more. Maeve has a background in youth work, advocacy and horticulture and, like many Londoners, has been asthmatic since she was a child.
Love Ssega (he/him)
Love Ssega is a performing artist, writer and musician based in South London and is a Founder of LIVE + BREATHE clean air campaign. His interest is using the arts and culture to amplify voices of Black communities for climate justice. He has been an Artist in Residence for Philharmonia Orchestra, shown his work at UN COP26 in Glasgow and most recently interviewed for Climate Week New York 2023. Love Ssega is also a Trustee of Brian Eno-led charity EarthPercent.
Caroline Mawer (she/her)
Caroline lives in the Brunswick Centre – two large tower blocks laid down on either side of a pedestrian shopping street. For the centre of London, they've got relatively lots of local greenery, but after she successfully bid for a Breathe London monitor for her TRA it showed that their air is dangerously dirty. Or sometimes hyper-filthy. So Caroline did a London climate action week walk across Bloomsbury. Now she's a multimedia artist, but she used to work in health - and is specially interested in the wide ranging health effects of air pollution.
Lorna Shaw - PEACH E16
Lorna is part of People's Empowerment Alliance for Custom House, better known as PEACH. Their mission is to build collective, long-term, inclusive people power to win change on core issues in Custom House & Canning Town, London Borough of Newham. Over the years, through building collective resident power in Newham, PEACH has been able to secure huge wins, such as 60% rent reductions for 250 temporary tenant households and a 300k rent arrears amnesty. Most recently, PEACH members have fought for and won an interim refurbishment programme delivered by Newham Council. Despite these wins, many are still living in temporary accommodation that harms their health. They are continuing their fight through their current housing campaigns, demanding Permanent Homes Now and Safe Homes Now.
Roshini - Wen (Women's Environmental Network)
Wen fights global problems around gender, health, equality and our environment by taking action on issues affecting our bodies, homes and neighbourhoods. They work alongside communities supporting action and get a real-world understanding of women’s lived experiences in the process. Roshini works with Rebecca on The Climate Sisters ‘Local Women of the World at the Climate Table’ project which aims to make systemic change by amplifying marginalised women’s voices in climate justice debates and in the transition to a low-carbon economy.
Rebecca - Wen (Women's Environmental Network)
Wen fights global problems around gender, health, equality and our environment by taking action on issues affecting our bodies, homes and neighbourhoods. They work alongside communities supporting action and get a real-world understanding of women’s lived experiences in the process. Rebecca works with Roshini on The Climate Sisters ‘Local Women of the World at the Climate Table’ project which aims to make systemic change by amplifying marginalised women’s voices in climate justice debates and in the transition to a low-carbon economy.
Katy Clarke (she/her)
Katy is a mum of two who lives in Tower Hamlets. Her already passionate concerns about the environment have been exacerbated by living on a busy road. Their walk to school in the morning is incredibly unpleasant and the school, like many others, has a real problem with idling, congestion at drop off times and illegal, unsafe parking.