Support the Clean Air (Human Rights) Bill

HM Government

Graphic that reads: Support the Clean Air (Human Rights) Bill. With photo of Jenny Jones and Caroline Lucas holding the Bill outside Palace of Westminster and Green Party House of Lords logo in top left.

#EllasLaw – The Government should protect people and their climate by adopting Baroness Jenny Jones’ Clean Air (Human Rights) Bill that would enshrine the human right to breathe clean air precisely and explicitly in law

On 15 February 2013, Ella Roberta Adoo Kissi-Debrah died aged nine from acute respiratory failure, severe asthma and air pollution exposure. She was the first person to have air pollution identified as a medical cause of death on her death certificate.

70 years after the Great Smog of 1952 killed thousands of people, the Clean Air Act 1993 desperately needs to be updated for modern fuels, technologies and circumstances to protect people and the planet. Baroness Jenny Jones’ Clean Air (Human Rights) Bill would do it overnight.

On 28 July 2022, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution recognising the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment as a human right and called on countries to scale up their efforts in this area. This resolution followed the World Health Organisation (WHO) tightening its air quality guidelines in September 2021 and the Glasgow Climate Pact in December 2021.

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Ella’s Law, as a new Clean Air Act, would instantly transform action on air pollution and the climate emergency by requiring the government and every public authority to consider clean air in every decision that they take as they currently do for equalities. It should be adopted by the Government now.