Climate Change

Air Quality and Climate Change

Air Quality Management and Climate Change are seperate agendas but are intrinsically linked in many ways. The sources of recognised air pollutants and greenhouse gases are often the same, and many of the substances recognised as air quality pollutants are also potent greenhouse gases. There are a few cases where making an air quality improvement may come at the cost of potentially higher greenhouse gas emissions, and vice versa, but in general these situations are uncommon and the two areas have many shared strategy goals.

Air quality professionals in local government often hold broad roles that cover a range of environmental and public protection duties, and as many local authorities have declared Climate Emergencies with various “net-zero” targets or other forms of action planning on carbon footprint reduction, air quality officers may increasingly be expected to have a high level of awareness of the main sources of greenhouse gases locally, and explicitly refer to the relationship between air quality management strategy and climate change policy.