Dr. Laura de Vito, Research Fellow, Air Quality Management Resource Centre, Faculty of Environment and Technology, University of the West of England
Despite many years of efforts to reduce air pollution to safe ambient concentrations, levels of several pollutants still contravene health-based guidelines across many European cities and around the world. During this seminar I will draw from evidence across six European cities as part of the ClairCity project and from Delhi as part of the CADTIME project to show why and how air quality management should put a greater emphasis on the social and contextual factors that contribute to emissions. By putting citizens’ behaviour, activities and experiences of air pollution at the heart of policymaking, citizens are empowered to visualise clean, low carbon, healthy futures for their city and policymakers can design context-specific policies that work and produce meaningful results for all communities.