On Clean Air Day, Mayor hails young Londoners’ ‘inspiring’ efforts to tackle air pollution

• Mayor marks Clean Air Day with visit to school in Hounslow
• Sadiq congratulates the winners of his London-wide Clean Air Day poster challenge, after over 600 school children submit entries
• Winning poster designs will be displayed across the capital, including on the Mayor’s social media channels

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has hailed the efforts of young Londoners to tackle the city’s air pollution as he announced the winners of his London-wide school poster challenge to mark the seventh annual national Clean Air Day. The winning designs will be featured on display boards across the capital, and on Mayoral social media channels.

Around 4,000 Londoners die prematurely each year due to air pollution, and tackling the capital’s toxic air is a top priority for the Mayor. More than 630 school children aged 4-14 from 83 schools across the capital took part in the Mayor’s Clean Air Day poster challenge launched last month, designing posters explaining ‘What Clean Air Means to Me’. 10 overall winners were chosen alongside a ‘Highly Commended’ design from each borough.

Clean Air Day is the UK's largest campaign on air pollution. Coordinated by Global Action Plan, the campaign encourages the public to learn more about air pollution, take simple actions to reduce their contribution to air pollution, and show their support for measures to improve air quality.

This week, the Mayor issued a ‘high’ pollution alert for the capital on Tuesday and Wednesday. This was upon the advice of Imperial College London forecasters, due to a strong likelihood of high ozone levels caused by the hot, sunny weather and south-easterly winds blowing existing pollutants from the continent towards London. The alert then dropped to ‘moderate’ today (Thursday 15^th June) after air circulation changed slightly to come more from the North and more cloud cover was expected. Wednesday 14^th June was the 202nd day of either moderate or high levels of air pollution Londoners have experienced over the last five years. In total there have been 16 high pollution days and 187 moderate pollution days (including today, Thursday 15^th June) since the start of 2018.

To mark the seventh annual Clean Air Day, the Mayor today visited Green Dragon School in Hounslow, to congratulate pupil Obay, age 9, on being named an overall winner in his challenge and to hear about the work the school is doing to improve air quality.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “Filthy air is one of the greatest threats to our capital, with around 4,000 Londoners dying prematurely every year as a result of air pollution.

“Cleaning up London’s air is one of my greatest priorities, and it’s fantastic to see how engaged young Londoners are with this cause. I was overwhelmed by the response to my Clean Air Day poster challenge, and it shows how these inspiring children children want to clean up our air and are leading the charge in their local area.

“I urge all Londoners to follow their lead and get involved this Clean Air Day to be part of this fight.

“It’s great to see the work Green Dragon School are doing to reduce air pollution - from scooter storage and cycle lessons to air quality monitoring and greening their local space, they are making a huge difference to their local area.”

Nadine O’Hara, Headteacher at Green Dragon Primary School, said: "We are thrilled with the efforts of our community to improve air quality, which have made a big difference to our school environment. We are especially proud of our pupils who have shown great enthusiasm in making a positive impact on their local environment through the work of our eco team and their participation in class. They particularly enjoyed designing posters for Clean Air Day this year and created some really thoughtful pieces, so it’s wonderful to be named a winner in the Mayor’s challenge." 

The school is part of the School Superzones Programme and also has a School Street – two initiatives supported by the Mayor to help improve air quality and the environment around schools, as well as children’s health.

The Mayor has invested £1.9 million into the School Superzones programme to date, through which boroughs and schools work together on key local issues such as restricting unhealthy food and drink advertising, driving down air pollution and promoting active travel - and use the Mayor’s funding to create healthier, greener and safer communities. Following the success of the pilot in 2018 and 2019, the Mayor expanded the School Superzones programme in 2022 and there are now 53 School Superzones across 20 London boroughs, with 80 per cent taking action on air quality. 

Green Dragon School received £28,700 of Superzones funding and identified air quality as one of the top issues affecting the health of children, young people and families locally. The school has taken action by installing air quality monitoring sensors and manual diffusion tubes, encouraging families to get involved in active travel by providing scooter storage and cycling vouchers, and improving access to green space around the school, receiving Eco-Schools Green Flag accreditation as a result. It is also working towards asthma friendly school accreditation, which includes providing staff training to improve the understanding and management of asthma and providing additional asthma medical equipment.

Green Dragon School has operated a School Street since September 2020 – one of 23 in Hounslow. There are currently over 500 School Streets in London, helping more than 260,000 children breathe cleaner air.Thanks to School Streets and other measures, walking is now the main way 58 per cent of children aged 5-11 in London get to school, according to TfL analysis. Research published by City Hall, making use of the Breathe London air quality monitoring network, found that School Streets reduce nitrogen dioxide by up to 23 per cent during morning drop off. 

Leader of Hounslow Council, Councillor Shantanu Rajawat, said: “As a community and as a borough, we are looking to a future where our children and young people continue to lead healthy, active lives, secure in the knowledge that the air they breathe is safe and clean. 

“Clean air is not a privilege or a luxury - it is a fundamental right that all our children, young people and all residents of our borough deserve. Schemes such as the School Superzone at Green Dragon Primary are the torchbearers for this new way of thinking about the air we breathe. As is often the case in environmental matters, our children and young people are leading the way.

“Hounslow Council offers free air quality audits to all schools in the borough and there is funding available to help implement the recommendations from their findings. We are delighted to announce that the Council has secured funding for a further two School Superzones, which we are hoping to launch in July.

“We would like to thank the Mayor of London for making the funding available for this project. It is something we can continue to learn from and share as we move forward together with our plans for clean air in Hounslow.” 

Larissa Lockwood, Director of Clean Air at Global Action Plan, said: “Clean Air Day is a moment to talk about the importance of tackling air pollution and to show our support for changes that make it easier for us all to breathe clean air. It’s wonderful to see children from across London engaging with the issue and showing what clean air means to them, as we know that children are particularly vulnerable to the harms of air pollution. Congratulations to the 10 winners and those Highly Commended – their posters are a fantastic example of how we can use our collective voice to call for a cleaner air future.”

The action the Mayor has taken to improve London’s air quality since taking office in 2016 has already had a huge effect, with his Ultra Low Emission Zone helping four million Londoners breathe cleaner air and cutting harmful NO2 concentrations by nearly half in central London. The expansion of the ULEZ on 29 August will help a further five million people in outer London. Transport for London now has a fully ULEZ compliant bus fleet of around 9,000 buses and has transformed the capital’s taxi fleet by no longer licensing new diesel taxis and reducing the age limit for older cabs. The Mayor continues to roll out electric charging points across the capital with 12,800 charge points currently in place, of which over 900 are rapid or ultra-rapid. He also launched the Breathe London network at priority locations including schools and hospitals, which now has almost 400 active sensors.