The 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP24) in Katowice, Poland, concluded last week with the adoption of a rulebook to make the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change work in practice across the world.
The conference agreed on rules to implement the Paris Agreement, which will come into force in 2020, that administer how governments will measure and report on their emissions-cutting efforts.
The European Commission says that the Paris rulebook will enable the Parties to the Paris Agreement to implement, track and progressively enhance their contributions to tackling climate change, in order to meet the Agreement's long-term goals of reducing global emissions and limiting global temperature rises to well below 2C.
High emissions have a serious impact on the levels of environmental pollutants and can result in poor air quality and increased ambient air pollution. Important respiratory health effects of ambient air pollution include the development and exacerbation of chronic respiratory disease, lower respiratory tract infections and lung cancer.
The ERS Environment and Health Committee strongly supports interventions to reduce health effects of air pollution through both state and supranational legislation on limit values for emissions and emission control, and welcomes the latest commitments agreed upon at COP24.