PARLIAMENTARY EARLY DAY MOTION
AIR POLLUTION (1 December 2017)

That this House notes that 5 December 2017 is the 65th anniversary of the lethal Great Smog of London, which brought the city to a standstill for four days and during which at least 4,000 people lost their life; further notes that by 5 December 2017 an estimate suggests that 8,700 people will have died prematurely in London since the start of the year due to major air pollutants, with more than one person an hour dying before their time; believes that air pollution is a critical human and climate crisis the world over and that every global citizen should have the right to breathe clean air; welcomes the New Weather Institute's #smogday initiative being launched between Delhi, a city with some of the worst air pollution in the world, and London, to remember the victims of air pollution; further welcomes the fact that the 65th anniversary of the Great Smog of London coincides with 193 countries negotiating a series of resolutions on pollution at the UN; encourages all UK cities to be part of the UN Environment's BreatheLife campaign to improve urban air quality; and calls on the Government to stop passing responsibility for tackling air pollution to local authorities and instead take immediate action centrally to ensure nationwide compliance with air quality standards, including a public sector air quality duty obliging all public bodies to take into account the effect of air pollution whenever they make a decision on public services or public funds and urgently legislating for more clean air zones that would charge the dirtiest vehicles to enter the UK's most polluted cities and bring in a diesel scrappage scheme without delay.

Sponsored by:
Caroline Lucas (Green Party)