Air pollution can be tackled to the betterment of our living standards - Yorkshire Post Letters

London, San Francisco and Beijing have achieved remarkable reductions in air pollution having slashed levels of two ‘airway-aggravating pollutants’ by more than 20 per cent since 2010.

Nearly 100 cities throughout the world were analysed of which 19 passed the test. China and Hong Kong account for nine of these, the rest are in Europe except for San Francisco, the only city in the US.

“This report shows that cities can achieve what was once thought impossible: cutting toxic air pollution by 20-45 per cent in a little over a decade,” says Cecilia Vaca Jones, executive director of the organisation ‘Breathe Cities.’

It is no coincidence that the London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, who has made cleaning the air of the metropolis a priority, became mayor in May 2016, a decade ago.

Dr Gary Fuller, an air pollution scientist at Imperial College, London, says “Air pollution is often presented as a problem that is too difficult to solve and one that is politically unpopular.”

Sadiq Khan has had to withstand continual criticism from the right-wing press and the Conservative and Reform UK parties. There is mounting pressure from politicians on both sides of the Atlantic to abandon the Net Zero target and measures to achieve it.

Those thinking of voting for the Tory or Reform UK parties, should think very carefully first. Do they really want to halt the drive to clean up the air we breathe and condemn, especially children, to an increase in asthma and related illnesses?