News 23 June 2026
Today, at London Climate Action Week, Bloomberg Philanthropies announced a $45 million investment to grow Breathe Cities, a global initiative delivered with Clean Air Fund and C40 Cities to improve air quality and protect public health. The funding will support the initiative’s work across its growing network of cities, helping local leaders deploy data-driven solutions, strengthen clean air policies, and accelerate efforts to reduce pollution and improve public health outcomes.
As part of this next phase, Addis Ababa and Madrid will join the 14 existing cities in the Breathe Cities network, bringing the total number of participating Breathe Cities to 16 worldwide. Beyond these cities, the initiative has engaged more than 60 cities globally through peer learning, technical exchange, and knowledge-sharing efforts that help accelerate action on air quality and public health.
Through Breathe Cities, local leaders continue to lead the way in cleaning the air. Every step forward helps to save lives, improve public health, and reduce emissions – all while making cities better places to live and work. This new investment will build on the progress mayors are making – and help spread that progress to even more cities.
Michael R. Bloomberg, UN Special Envoy on Climate Ambition and Solutions and founder of Bloomberg L.P. and Bloomberg Philanthropies
Building on Bloomberg Philanthropies’ global air quality work and inspired by pilot programmes in London and Warsaw, Breathe Cities launched in 2023 to help mayors turn air quality data into action. As cities around the world face growing pressure to address pollution and its impacts on public health, the initiative has become a model for helping local leaders pair better data with practical solutions. Bloomberg Philanthropies’ new investment will build on strong early momentum by expanding support for participating cities and strengthening peer learning among mayors and city leaders, helping proven clean air approaches reach more communities worldwide.
London began our partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies in 2019 with a shared mission to tackle the toxic air in cities. Since then, we’ve achieved remarkable results by putting real-time data into the hands of our communities. In London, we’ve developed the world’s largest clean air zone, one of biggest electric bus fleets in the world, and deployed air sensors on over 500 school streets. From Bogotá to Sofia, cities across the world are adopting and expanding clean air zones inspired by the success of London’s clean air zone.
Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London and co-chair of C40 Cities
Globally, air pollution remains one of the most significant public health challenges, contributing to millions of deaths each year and increasing the risk of asthma, respiratory disease, heart disease, and other serious health conditions. While many cities understand the major sources of pollution – from transportation to heating – they often lack the localised data and technical capacity needed to design targeted interventions and measure progress.
Air pollution damages our health from before we take our first breath until our last, and every child deserves to grow up breathing clean air. This funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies allows us to go further: reaching more communities and cities, supporting more local partners, and giving more people the tools to act on clean air in their own neighborhoods. We are grateful to Bloomberg Philanthropies for their continued commitment to the cities that are proving what’s possible.
Cecilia Vaca Jones, Executive Director of Breathe Cities
To date, Breathe Cities has helped cities reduce toxic nitrogen dioxide pollution by 14% – demonstrating how targeted local action can improve public health and the air people breathe every day. Since its launch in 2023, Breathe Cities has:
- Expanded access to air quality Data: Cities have deployed nearly 1,200 air quality sensors, helping local leaders and communities use real-time data to identify street-level hotspots and pollution sources where people live, work, and play. In Paris, localised air quality data helped support traffic restrictions on 300 streets and the phaseout of the city’s most polluting vehicles, while Accra and Nairobi established their first low-cost monitoring networks to track hyper-local pollution.
- Advanced clean air policies: Cities have designed and implemented 26 local clean-air policies to reduce pollution and improve quality of life. In London, data from more than 330 sensors supported policies including the world’s largest Ultra-Low Emissions Zone and traffic restrictions on more than 500 school streets, helping the city meet legal nitrogen dioxide limits for the first time, nearly 200 years earlier than experts once projected. In Jakarta, a landmark bus electrification policy is helping accelerate cleaner transportation. Across the initiative, 10 cities have committed to implementing Clean Air Zones by 2030, improving air quality in areas where more than 18 million people live and work.
- Deployed cleaner infrastructure: Cities have accelerated the transition to cleaner transportation and heating systems, with over 7,500 electric buses now operating across the Breathe Cities network. In Bogotá, more than 1,500 electric buses serve nearly 600,000 daily journeys as part of one of the world’s largest zero-emission bus fleets, while Warsaw and Sofia have replaced approximately 24,500 polluting household heating systems.
In Bogotá, we have shown that cities in the Global South can lead on this issue. With the support of Breathe Cities and Bloomberg Philanthropies, our Zonas Urbanas por un Mejor Aire (clean air zones) are bringing cleaner streets to the neighbourhoods that have carried the heaviest burden for too long, and that work will only go further with this new investment.
Carlos Fernando Galán, Mayor of Bogotá
Beyond supporting on-the-ground action, Breathe Cities is helping build a global movement for cleaner air. Public awareness efforts have reached more than 200 million people, while international workshops, study tours, and peer-learning exchanges are helping city leaders replicate proven clean air solutions and accelerate progress.
Bloomberg Philanthropies’ long-term commitment to clean air has helped transform what cities believe is possible. Through Breathe Cities, we are seeing cities across five continents adopting ambitious policies, cutting pollution, and empowering communities to drive change – and this expansion will allow more cities to deliver cleaner air and healthier futures for their residents. Clean Air Fund is proud to power this work alongside our partners.
Jane Burston OBE, CEO of Clean Air Fund
