London Air Getting Cleaner - Official

A new report from DEFRA shows how initiatives such as ULEZ, the Ultra Low Emission Zone, has helped London improve it's air quality and achieve the legal limit of less than 40µg of NO₂ per m³ in the annual mean testing for the first time in a number of years.

The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs have broken the country into 43 zones, with 38 meeting the legal standard in 2024, while 5 zones (Manchester, Liverpool, Bristol, Coventry/Bedworth & West Midlands Urban Area) were shown to exceed the threshold.

The news was particularly welcomed in London. “This means that almost 10 million people are now breathing cleaner air, fewer children are growing up with stunted lungs and fewer people will have to suffer from asthma, dementia and heart disease, which means big savings for the NHS.” said Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan.

“London’s compliance with the UK’s annual mean nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) limit value in 2024 marks a truly remarkable turnaround for the city’s air quality." said Professor Frank Kelly of the Environmental Research Group at Imperial College London. "Just five years ago, research we undertook estimated it could take nearly two centuries to reach this milestone without decisive action. Thanks to the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) and Mayor Khan’s other ambitious traffic management policies, London has achieved in a few years what was once thought impossible."

The news was also welcomed by Sarah Sleet, CEO at Asthma + Lung UK, who said: “This is an important step in the fight for Londoners to breathe clean air, and it’s great that this milestone has been reached ahead of target. It’s particularly significant for the 600,000 people living with a lung condition in Greater London and will help prevent the appallingly high rates of emergency admissions for respiratory conditions – around 100,000 in 2024/25 – as well as premature deaths.”

Despite an artificial blip lowering emissions in 2020 due to COVID lockdown restrictions, 10 zones exceeded the legal limit in 2021 compared to 33 in 2019. In both 2022 and 2023 that reduced to 9 zones exceeding the limit, so to reduce this to just 5 in 2024 is a positive improvement, but shows there is still work to be done. Full details of the DEFRA report, including results of all of the pollutants measured, can be found on the UK Government website.