Clean Air Day: How we're working to improve the region's health and environment

Both locally and regionally, we in the West Midlands are working hard to address challenges of environment and climate change, writes Cllr Ian Courts.

We are dealing with a wide spectrum of issues relating to the built and natural environment; we are looking to accelerate retrofit, increase biodiversity, promote resource efficiency, futureproof the energy system and make us more resilient to the effects of climate change. Air quality is a fundamental part of our strategy.

On Clean Air Day, 2022, I published this blog which you can read in full on the CEN.

The Environment Act 2021 has given new?national?impetus to act on air quality. There is still focus on addressing NOX and NO2 – a primary pollutant mainly emitted from road transport - but additional attention is being given to the harmful effects of?particulates?(the main ones being PM2.5 and PM10, based on the size of the particles themselves). Sources of particulates include biomass (wood) burning, combustion, resuspended dusts (e.g. from tyres); in the West Midlands,?the largest source of PM is from domestic combustion. Emissions from industry also contribute significantly to poor regional air quality and will require innovative solutions to tackle them.

Modelling done by the University of Birmingham’s?WM-Air project?indicates that there are as many as 1400 premature deaths in the West Midlands Combined Authority area from PM2.5.

At a regional level, the WMCA is looking to put an Air Quality Framework in place: this recognises the actions that need to be taken to radically improve public health and environmental outcomes for people, and places, across the region.?Much of this will focus on behaviour change and how we shift away from some of the most polluting activities.?A high-level options paper has already been produced;?122 interventions have been identified that could be taken at a local, regional and national level to improve air quality in the West Midlands.

The work at WMCA will build on, and compliment, the actions that individual local authorities in the region are already taking, through their air quality plans and strategies. These include the promotion of active travel; improving council-owned fleets; addressing industrial emissions.?

There is a lot of work still to do, but these plans are being made alongside existing schemes. We know that we need better data and better monitoring of air quality across the region, so that we can have a consistent picture of what is happening, as well as where we are having impact. This will be key to developing our knowledge and awareness of the challenges and focus of our activity, as well as highlighting successes that we can celebrate locally and regionally.

By Cllr Ian Courts, leader of Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council and portfolio holder for Environment, Energy & HS2 on West Midlands Combined Authority. First published in full on CEN, kindly re-published in part with permission.