HCM6001

Global Health and Sustainability

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Pure and clean air to ensure that people overall health and environment is not affected and to
ensure that city welcomes tourist and create a space for work presently and in the future.
Improving the air quality is considered to be the key aspect for the UK and therefore it was
required to maintain a level of air pollution (Economidou et al., 2024. pp. 369-401).

EIP plan

Environmental Improvement Plan 2023 (EIP) outlines the Government's approach to advancing
all aspects of the environment. It expands upon the vision established in the 2019 clean air
strategy along with 25 year environmental plan, incorporating new authorities and
responsibilities from the Environment Act (2021). (Whomersley et al., 2022. pp. 861632).

National Emissions Statistics

The pollutants through an annual national statistics release UK reported following annual
emissions: Sulphur dioxide and Oxides of nitrogen, Non-methane volatile organic compounds,
Ammonia and Particulate matter (as PM10 and PM2.5) (Mazzeo et al., 2022. pp. 377).

Ambient concentrations of various air pollutants that include metallic pollutants along with
ozone, sulphur and nitrogen dioxides and carbon monoxide particles are regularly measured at
over 500 locations in the UK. These locations include urban, suburban, roadside, industrial, and
rural areas. A combination of automatic and non-automatic measurement techniques is used for
this purpose. The measurement is important due to the potential impacts of these pollutants on
human health, welfare, and the natural environment (Kufeoglu and Hong, 2020. pp. 114241).

Air quality and pollutants in the UK is influenced by factors such as emissions that were reported
in the NAEI, along with the secondary way of creating air pollutants and emissions from outside
the UK considering the geographical and meteorological factors. Through various monitoring
stations UK monitors air quality and this network enables to keep a record of concentrations of
most widely recognised pollutants and is known as the AURA, the automatic urban and rural
network (Averchenkova et al., 2021. pp. 251-263).

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Air pollution has been increasing again after the lockdowns. According to current laws, the UK
Government must report annually on areas where it is not meeting legal limits for air pollution
that is designed in safeguarding the overall public health. In the UK, according to the law
regarding nitrogen dioxide pollution , which is one of the most harmful pollutants, states that
annual average concentrations cannot exceed 40 µg/m3 (micrograms per cubic meter of air)
(O’beirne et al., 2020. pp. 264-274).

Provisions of the environmental targets.

1. The annual mean concentration target (AMCT)

2. The population exposure reduction target (PERT)

Within this framework, the environmental targets took effect in January 2023. These regulations
established two new targets for evaluating ambient concentrations of particulate matter,
measured as PM2.5 and reducing population exposure between 2028 and 2040 (ApSimon et al.,
2023. pp. 525).

The fight against air pollution in the UK is a significant issue, but there are ways to solve it.
Legal victories, the government, and local authorities have been compelled to create new air
quality plans to demonstrate how they will comply with legal limits as quickly as possible. This
has resulted in the establishment of Clean Air Zones nationwide and the allocation of over £800
million to local authorities to assist people in transitioning to cleaner forms of transport
(Travaglio et al., 2021. pp. 115859). However, recent developments indicate that the government
is considering eliminating the legal protections that have spurred this progress.

Environmental Improvement Plan and Interim Targets This is the first five-yearly revision
of the 25-Year Environment Plan, and includes 10 wide-ranging goals covering the following:

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Plants and animals that are thriving, clean and pure air, maintenance of clean and plentiful water,
managing the unnecessary exposure to chemicals and pesticides, maximising the resources and
minimising the waste, using sustainable resources, adapting towards the climate change,
reducing the risk and harm to the environmental hazards, to enhance biosecurity and beauty
along with overall inclusion of the natural atmosphere and environment (Higham et al., 2021. pp.
352-332).

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References

ApSimon, H., Oxley, T., Woodward, H., Mehlig, D., Holland, M. and Reeves, S (2023)
‘;Integrated assessment modelling of future air quality in the UK to 2050 and synergies with net-
zero strategies’. Atmosphere, 14(3), p.525. Online Available at : https://www.mdpi.com/2073-
4433/14/3/525. Last Accessed on : 19th June 2024.

Averchenkova, A., Fankhauser, S. and Finnegan, J.J., 2021. The impact of strategic climate
legislation: evidence from expert interviews on the UK Climate Change Act. Climate Policy,
21(2), pp.251-263. Online Available at:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14693062.2020.1819190.. Last Accessed on: 18th
June 2024.

Economidou, M., Della Valle, N., Melica, G. and Bertoldi, P. (2024) ‘The role of European
municipalities and regions in financing energy upgrades in buildings.’ Environmental Economics
and Policy Studies, 26(2), pp.369-401. Online Available at:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10018-023-00363-3. Last Accessed on: 17th June
2024.

Higham, J.E., Ramírez, C.A., Green, M.A. and Morse, A.P (2021) ‘UK COVID-19 lockdown:
100 days of air pollution reduction?. Air Quality, Atmosphere & Health, 14, pp.325-332’ Online
Available at: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11869-020-00937-0.. Last Accessed on:
18th June 2024.

Küfeoğlu, S. and Hong, D.K.K (2020) ‘Emissions performance of electric vehicles: A case
study from the United Kingdom. ‘ Applied Energy, 260, p.114241. Online Available at :
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261919319282. Last Accessed on : 19th
June 2024.

Mazzeo, A., Zhong, J., Hood, C., Smith, S., Stocker, J., Cai, X. and Bloss, W.J (2022)
‘Modelling the impact of national vs. local emission reduction on PM2. 5 in the West Midlands,
‘UK using WRF-CMAQ. Atmosphere, 13(3), p.377. Online Available at :
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/13/3/377. Last Accessed on: 18th June 2024.

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O’Beirne, P., Battersby, F., Mallett, A., Aczel, M., Makuch, K., Workman, M. and Heap, R
(2020) ‘The UK net-zero target: Insights into procedural justice for greenhouse gas
removal.’ Environmental Science & Policy, 112, pp.264-274. Online Available at :
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1462901120303671. Last Accessed on: 18th
June 2024.

Whomersley, P., Bell, J., Clingham, E., Collins, M.A., Feary, D.A., Stockill, J., Weber, S., Yates,
O. and Bamford, K. (2022) ‘Working towards a blue future: Promoting sustainability,
environmental protection and marine management: Examples from the UK Government Blue
Belt Programme and current international initiatives’. Frontiers in Marine Science, 9, p.861632.
Online Available at : https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.861632/full. Last
Accessed on : 18th June 2024.

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