C40 publishes guide on managing air quality and climate:

Good air quality and climate action share many of the same solutions. But often, air quality management and climate action planning are considered separately–siloed by different city departments or agencies, with separate timelines and planning processes. C40 recognises that this separation can complicate and slow the urgent change we need to improve quality of life and respond to the climate crisis. That’s why we are pleased to share with you a new resource to overcome barriers between air quality management and climate action planning, improve municipal efficiency, and strengthen stakeholder engagement.

C40 has released a new step-by-step guide for bringing together city-level air quality management and climate action planning: Clean Air, Healthy Planet: A framework for integrating air quality management and climate action planning. It guides local municipalities in setting their vision, goals, strategies, actions and targets to simultaneously tackle the issues of climate change, air pollution and public health.

By following this guide, cities can set a path to simultaneously meet their climate change, air quality and health goals. The framework provides tips for city employees to better understand the air quality and health implications of city climate policies and to explore the broader co-benefits of climate action planning.

With this integrated air quality and climate action planning approach, cities:

• Identify major strategies to reduce air pollutants and improve air quality (including strategies that may not have been identified in a traditional climate action planning process).

• Identify opportunities for co-benefits (improvements in air quality and public health as well as climate change mitigation).

• Identify actions that could mitigate climate change or reduce vulnerability to climate change (adaptation), but which may negatively impact air quality.

• Improve municipal efficiency, stakeholder engagement, and the quality of data used in city planning.

The new “Clean Air, Healthy Planet” framework builds on C40’s in-house quantitative decision support tools by providing a structured method for integrating air quality and climate action planning that can be applied independently by cities and municipalities of all shapes and sizes.

‘Clean Air, Healthy Planet: A framework for integrating air quality management and climate action planning’, is initially available in English. Please check the resource page in early 2022 for Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, French and Mandarin versions.  Please be in touch with any comments or reactions. We’d love to hear how you use the guide in your work. We encourage you to share this framework with any contacts that may be interested in reading it and engaging with its contents.