Global Action Plan, organisers of Clean Air Day, have announced the return of Clean Air Night, the first of which took place in January of this year.
Taking place on Wednesday 22nd January 2025, this year’s event will focus on the health damage caused by domestic wood burning.
The campaign takes a three-pronged attack on the subject:
- Wood burning harms your wallet
- Wood burning harms your health
- Wood burning harms the planet
The report takes aim at the current implementation of Smoke Control areas (SCAs) which, it claims is fundamentally flawed. Changes proposed include extended them to cover the whole of the UK – with exemptions for home with no alternative source of heating – toughening their scope to cover Ecodesign stoves and giving local authorities greater powers to enforce them.
Other measures suggested by the report are:
- A public information campaign to increase understanding about the health harms of wood/solid fuel burning stoves and open fires.
- Increased regulation of the advertising of both wood burning stoves and fuel.
- Increased powers to enable local authorities to tackle the air pollution produced by domestic burning in a way they deem to be most appropriate for their local area
Larissa Lockwood, Director of Clean Air at Global Action Plan said: ‘Domestic burning is the biggest source of small particle air pollution in the UK and can cause significant harm to everyone’s health. Over the next five years, the government’s strategy needs to evolve from encouraging people to ‘burn better’ to phasing out this source of harmful air pollution, starting with those homes – most typically, but not exclusively, in our towns and cities – where a fire is a secondary and therefore unnecessary heating source. The report we are sharing today sets out a policy pathway to curb this growing pollution problem and protect public health and the planet, a journey that must start now.’
Read Action for Clean Air: evidence and resources on domestic burning here.
