Health and Global Policy Institute (HGPI) and around 50 million others worldwide joined the World Health Organization (WHO) Call to Action for Clean Air, demonstrating our commitment to addressing the urgent health and environmental challenges caused by air pollution. This global initiative unites governments, businesses, development agencies, philanthropies, and civil society organizations in calling for bold action to improve air quality and protect public health.

The Call to Action was part of the lead-up to the 2nd World Conference on Air Pollution and Health, to be held in Cartagena, Colombia, March 25 to 27, 2025. Air pollution remains one of the most significant environmental health risks, contributing to millions of premature deaths around the world each year. HGPI recognizes the critical intersection between climate change and health and supports global efforts to promote clean air policies.

The Call to Action urges governments, leaders, decision-makers, donors, and the private sector to commit to accelerated investments, strengthened policies, and cross-sector collaboration to ensure clean air for all.

In their respective roles, they should commit without delay to:

• enforce robust measures to stop polluting the air, cutting emissions at source, and swiftly achieve the full implementation of WHO global air quality guidelines
• ensure a just and inclusive clean energy transition and fossil fuel phase-out in a fair and equitable manner
• strengthen actions for clean air, better monitoring and surveillance, and institutional capacity to limit air pollution and mitigate climate change
• increase domestic and international funding to elevate clean air as a priority on global and national health and political agendas, and
• build intersectoral workforces with the skills and capacity to design and implement policies to tackle air pollution, focusing on continuous awareness raising, training, research, and sharing best public health practices, especially in the most affected countries

By adding our signature, HGPI joins key stakeholders in urging decision-makers to prioritize air quality improvements as part of broader climate and health agendas to advance health and environmental sustainability in Japan and globally.

To read the full petition and to participate in the petition, please visit the WHO Call to Action for Clean Air webpage.

The WHO’s release on signatures can be found here.

[Letter] Call to action from the health community – Stop polluting the air we breathe: prevent diseases and save lives