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What\u2019s new: <\/strong>Hazardous air pollution was a daily reality for me as a child growing up in Mexico City. I felt it burning my eyes and irritating my throat every time I went outdoors to play soccer. By the late 1980s, my hometown was known as the most polluted city in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Years later, as an environmental professional, I had the chance to help clean up the air I had grown up breathing. I joined the team that developed and implemented the first Comprehensive Air Quality Program for the Valley of Mexico, launched in 1990. Thanks to this and successive efforts, annual average ground-level ozone was more than 40% lower in 2025 than it was in 1988.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mexico City improved its air quality through coordinated policy, sound implementation across sectors and funding at both the national and local levels\u2014a bold sign of what\u2019s possible. However, ozone level increases in recent years remind us that those gains must be protected. They demand sustained investment and adaptable measures to hold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why it matters: <\/strong>I opened with this story during my remarks at the Clean Air and Health Plenary for the Climate and Clean Air Coalition\u2019s (CCAC) annual meeting<\/a> held in Bangkok, Thailand in October. It reminds us how air pollution harms residents every day \u2014 and how committed, science-based action can turn things around. The lesson is to sustain that effort long enough to improve lives and keep adapting to protect those gains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Four keys to cleaner air:<\/strong> Cities that have substantially reduced air pollution, including Mexico City, London, New York, Beijing and Santiago, show what sustained action can achieve. Their experiences point to four interconnected keys to success:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Brazil is working to bring these four elements together as it carries out a major reform<\/a> of its national air quality policy. Working with its Ministry of Environment and Climate Change and other partners, EDF has brought government, researchers, civil society, businesses and funders together to address critical questions around which actions are most effective, who will carry them out and how to pay for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A big bet on super pollutants:<\/strong> As in Brazil, EDF-supported partnerships around the world are working to improve people\u2019s health and reduce climate pollution. Our focus on super pollutants like methane, black carbon and ground-level ozone can help deliver on both goals. These pollutants were central to the CCAC\u2019s annual meeting and are shared priorities for the coalition, its member countries and other partners. To achieve those results, public funding and private investment must match the scale of the challenge, backed by clear rules and incentives to reduce emissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What\u2019s next: <\/strong>Lasting progress takes sustained investments in time, resources and political will. Showing what cleaner air means for people\u2019s health, the climate and the economy can strengthen the case for those investments. EDF will continue engaging with CCAC and other partners so clean air leaders can learn from each other, put solutions to work and cut super-pollutants emissions faster. For me, leadership means taking responsibility for people\u2019s health and welfare \u2014 and following through. The children playing outside today deserve that commitment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can watch the CCAC Annual Meeting recordings <\/em>here<\/em><\/a>. Learn more about EDF\u2019s global super pollutants work in <\/em>this fact sheet.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What\u2019s new: Hazardous air pollution was a daily reality for me as a child growing up in Mexico City. I felt it burning my eyes and irritating my throat every time I went outdoors to play soccer. By the late 1980s, my hometown was known as the most polluted city in the world. Years later, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":147793,"featured_media":4621,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,9,10,11,12,17,20,21,24],"tags":[],"coauthors":[71],"class_list":["post-4618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brazil","category-climate","category-energy","category-environmental-justice","category-government-official-policymaker","category-health","category-london","category-monitoring","category-new-york-city","category-public-health-environmental-official"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n