BreatheLife/Urban Health Training: Building capacity to reduce air pollution through communications and technical tools

The BreatheLife/Urban Health Training Event will advance the objectives of the New Urban Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals directly contributing to environmentally sustainable and resilient urban development. At Habitat III, the WHO, UN Environment and the Climate and Clean Air Coalition launched the BreatheLife campaign to raise awareness of the health and climate impacts of air pollution and mitigation solutions. Air pollution reduction measures also lead to reductions in long- and short-lived climate pollutants (such as black carbon, methane and tropospheric ozone). Reducing SLCPS achieves immediate benefits for human health and slows the rate of near-term climate change. The BreatheLife campaign is: a) generating concrete commitments from city and regional/subnational leaders to 'Breathe Life' into their own cities by setting ambitious targets for reaching WHO air quality goals – as well as reduce climate emissions; some 40 cities including London, Washington, DC, Santiago and Tshwane, South Africa have joined so far. The campaign also is supporting awareness about, capacity, to use WHO; UN Environment and CCAC technical tools that city managers can use to reduce air pollution for health benefits in sectors such as transport, energy, agriculture, and waste. Finally, the campaign is reaching out to urban residents, including youth, with innovative videos, infographics and social media messages to make air pollution's health impacts more understandable.

The training event will provide a 'taste' of the tools available to assess health benefits from reducing urban air pollution generally, and tools for assessing health benefits from more sustainable transport, municipal solid waste and household energy management -- related to air quality improvements as well as other aspects of health (eg. injury reduction and physical activity promotion). The event will also deliver a communications training module on how cities, subregions and national governments can raise awareness about air pollution and launch their own BreatheLife campaigns. C40 will co-organize the event and will showcase the Fossil Fuel Free Streets Declaration as one of milestones towards delivering on the BreatheLife campaign goals to 'Breathelife back into our cities' by halving urban air pollution-related mortality by 2030, and reducing the expected rate of global warming by 2050 by as much as .5 C.