Cleaner Air for Scotland’s second annual progress report has been published. This report outlines the progress made in 2017/18 to deliver ‘Cleaner Air for Scotland – The Road to a Healthier Future’, Scotland’s first separate air quality strategy.
Cleaner Air for Scotland – The Road to a Healthier Future (CAFS) is a national cross government strategy that sets out how the Scottish Government and its partner organisations propose to reduce air pollution further to protect human health and fulfil Scotland’s legal responsibilities as soon as possible.
It was published in November 2015 with an overarching vision that Scotland’s air quality will be the best in Europe. Over the last two years, significant progress has been made in starting to deliver this vision through the 40 key actions contained in the strategy.
Key achievements to date include:
· Implementation of a refocused Local Air Quality Management system
· Establishing and expanding the monitoring network for PM2.5
· Adopting World Health Organisation values for PM2.5 into legislation
· Producing revised and updated Scottish action plans to demonstrate how compliance with the EU Ambient Air Quality Directive will be achieved
Collaborative working between the Scottish Government and a wide range of partner organisations, overseen by the Cleaner Air for Scotland Governance Group, has been the basis of the progress to date. The group have welcomed two new members onto the Governance Group – the British Heart Foundation and Professor Campbell Gemmell – who will bring a fresh perspective and some important areas of expertise.
The Governance Group have also announced significant additional funding which will support the work of Cleaner Air for Scotland. £10.8 million has been provided to support the introduction of Low Emission Zones during 2018/19 along with £0.75 million to support local authorities with Air Quality Management Areas to develop transport-based actions.
The group continue to make progress towards securing full compliance with EU ambient air quality Directive requirements by 2020. Current projections indicate some limited areas of non-compliance in Glasgow by this date, which we are working to address.
Following completion of the Scottish Parliament’s Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee’s inquiry into air quality, CAFS have committed to a full review of Cleaner Air for Scotland by 2020.
The annual report can be found here.
