Click here to experience UNEP's 360° AR filter which encourages you to pledge & make sustainable lifestyle changes, helping to achieve 'Clean Air for All' and take climate action. 

Share your video to your social media account, telling the world the different actions you will take to clear the air.

Be sure to use the hashtags #ClearTheAir, #CleanAirForAll & #WorldCleanAirDay, and tag @UNEP.

Then tag and challenge your family, friends and social networks to do the same!

On 1 September, UNEP launched ‘Clear the Air’ in the build-up to and in support of the first #WorldCleanAirDay.

'Clear the Air’ raises awareness about the impact of air pollution on peoples' health and the health of their environment and economies, as well as to promote individual solutions to improve air quality in their surroundings.

Click over common household objects in your home to learn more about how individuals, families and communities can help improve air quality.

What action will you take to #ClearTheAir?

Share them on social media with the hashtags, #ClearTheAir and #CleanAirForAll and be sure to tag @UNEP. 

Under COVID-19 lockdowns, many took to the internet to enthuse about clean air and blue skies. The confined masses shared pictures of wild animals roaming in deserted cities, including a photo purporting to show dolphins in the canals of Venice. Some of those photos may have been inaccurate or outright fake, but the enthusiasm signalled a longing for a healthy environment.

In the search for the pandemic’s silver lining, there may be a temptation to accept that healing the environment comes with plunging millions into joblessness as economies grind to a halt. We must reject this notion because the health of nature and the wellbeing of humans go hand in hand. Over the last few months, UNEP has repeatedly called upon governments to build back greener. UNEP’s Mediterranean Action Plan (UNEP/MAP)—which works to underpin the implementation of the Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment and the Coastal Region of the Mediterranean (Barcelona Convention) by 21 Mediterranean countries and the European Union—has called for a green renaissance in Mare Nostrum. As the region continues to grapple with a set of intertwined crises, which now includes the coronavirus pandemic, the journey to a green recovery may begin with relatively small steps.

Read the full Op-ed here.

While COVID-19-related disruptions may have impacted people’s mobility and slowed cross-border movements of people and goods this year, pollution knows no travel restrictions. Air pollutants, travelling through our atmosphere, can harm people and the environment even thousands of kilometres from their point of emissions.

Air pollution has been dubbed the ‘invisible killer’, responsible for a staggering 7 million deaths per year, according to the World Health Organization – more than from Malaria, Tuberculosis and AIDS combined. As we find out more about COVID-19, some scientists also suggest that people who live in polluted areas might be more susceptible to develop severe symptoms.

Read the full Op-ed here.

Olga Algayerova is the United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). She previously served as Permanent Representative of Slovakia to the International Organizations in Vienna, Austria (2012-2017); President, Slovak Millennium Development Goals (2010-2012); State Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2006-2010) and Corporate Export Manager, Zentiva International (2004-2006).