United Nations, June 5.- UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, has Wednesday called on all governments to take strong actions on air pollution.
Precisely, it is the main issue of World Environment Day, which seeks to raise awareness about the need to face an increasingly widespread problem.
In his message to recalling the date, Antonio Guterres stated that tackling down on air pollution can be a great opportunity to boost people's health and fight climate change.
He also stressed the great importance of scaling down greenhouse gas emissions by using some policies such as gradually eliminating the coal power plants and fostering least-polluting industries.
My message is clear, he said, we must end fossil fuel subsidies and halt the construction of new coal power plants: what it is needed right now is a green economy, not a gray one.
According to the World Bank, air pollution also costs societies over 5 billion dollars per year. Air pollution kills about 7 million people each year, causes long-term health problems and reduces child cognitive development, according to UN data.
World Environment Day has been celebrated since 1974 to draw attention to the globe´s most compulsive problems, and it is dedicated to a different issue every single year.
For example, in 2018 it was defended a world with no plastic pollution, a claim that then centered on the UN General Assembly President Maria Fernanda Espinosa´s campaign.
In 2019, the United Nations headquarters, in New York, succeeded in eliminating the use of single-use plastics such as cutlery, glasses, plates, cups, among others.