Conference:

Healthy Cities, Healthy People

Pathways for clean air in the EU’s urban environments

Poor air quality is a major and persistent challenge in urban environments, impacting the health and quality of life of residents, irrespective of where they live. In the overwhelming majority of cities in the EU, air quality is worse than what the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends, as a result of pollution from the household sectors and transport. For decades, city infrastructure was built to ensure a smooth flow of cars, not to focus on people’s health and well-being. However, this approach is slowly but surely changing, as many urban decision-makers have started to invest in healthy mobility, also as part of climate efforts. At the same time, pollution from wood burning in household increases, also due to a rise in energy poverty.

The conference, bringing together EU and urban decision-makers, health stakeholders, scientists and civil society, aims to present recent evidence on the health and economic benefits of sustainable mobility, and share good practice on measures initiated by city decision-makers, and showcase stakeholders engagement for cleaning up the air in the city of Brussels.

On the eve of the 2024 EU elections, and next EU policy cycle 2024-2029, this conference aims to identify pathways to reach good air quality for everyone, everywhere in cities.