Mark Nieuwenhuijsen
Director of the Urban Planning, Environment and Health Initiative, and head of ISGlobal's Air Pollution and Urban Environment programme
The Parliament's vote is another important step towards reducing the large health burden associated with air pollution in Europe. Air pollution still claims too many lives and causes too many diseases such as strokes, heart attacks, asthma, cancer and dementia, to name a few. It is extremely important to start acting now to comply with the new EU guidelines, for example by reducing the use of fossil fuels and increasing the use of clean and renewable energy sources, introducing low-emission zones and new urban models, such as Barcelona's superblocks.
London's low-traffic neighborhoods, Paris' 15-minute city and Freiburg's car-free neighborhoods encourage public and active transport, and improve housing insulation, agricultural manure management and fertilizer use. This generation has a unique opportunity to improve public health.