Air Pollution – Deadly Effects on Life

Air Pollution hurts the planet with increasingly deadly effects on life, the United Nations Environment warns, calling on countries to take measures to usher in a greener, cleaner and more sustainable future. Member States, civil society and environmental activists attended the United Nations Environment Assembly this week in Nairobi, Kenya. At the One Planet Summit, its high-level segment, UN’s Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said that she had been inspired by the ideas discussed at the conference – the world’s highest-level decision-making body on the environment – in support of UN environment’s (UNEP) #SolveDifferent campaign to find innovative solutions to environmental challenges. She urged the audience, which included Heads of State and government ministers, to “reshape the global economy into one that rewards careful stewardship and punishes waste and pollution.” Addressing the main topic of the Assembly – the need to shift to sustainable forms of consumption and production – the deputy UN chief reminded the audience that we are all living with negative consequences of the current “Take, Make and Dispose” global economic model. Examples include the harmful environmental and health impacts associated with the extraction of metals used in mobile phones; the millions of tons of plastic waste flowing into the oceans; and the huge amount of electronic waste generated every year. A United Nations report earlier underlined that 7 million people die prematurely because of air pollution-related effects.