News 23 October 2025
G20 Environment and Climate Ministers have adopted a landmark declaration on air quality. This is a clear recognition by the world’s largest economies that cleaner air is essential for health, prosperity and climate ambition, putting air quality on the G20 agenda as a standalone priority for the first time.
The Declaration highlights the importance of collaboration by G20 members and the wider international community to improve monitoring and access to open, reliable air quality data; to cooperate on transboundary pollution; to share best available technologies, and to scale up support for the most vulnerable communities affected by air pollution. It also proposes further technical cooperation and information sharing among G20 members. These are the right building blocks for faster, fairer progress.
Clean air: achievable, affordable and urgent
Air pollution now kills more people every year than tobacco and HIV, with a child under 5 dying every minute due to dirty air. Under current levels of funding and existing policies, air pollution is projected to worsen.
Yet reducing air pollution is both achievable and affordable – and momentum is growing. According to the World Bank, countries could halve exposure to harmful PM2.5 pollution by 2040 by combining decarbonisation with conventional clean-air measures. That would save up to two million lives a year.
Earlier this year, governments backed the WHO’s target to halve premature deaths from all air pollution by 2040. The G20’s declaration builds on this and demonstrates growing commitment and action globally.
A turning point for global clean air action
The G20 has said that cleaning our air must be a global priority. This declaration is a turning point. It matches recognition of air pollution’s vast impacts with recognition of the concrete steps to tackle it: through better data, stronger capability and cooperation that crosses borders. It proves that even in a difficult geopolitical moment, the world can agree that everyone should have the right to breathe clean air.
Jane Burston, CEO of Clean Air Fund
South Africa’s Presidency has elevated the issue of air pollution and secured a practical package focused on better data, capacity and cooperation across borders. The leadership of Dr Dion George, Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, has played a critical role in bringing the Declaration to fruition.
Clean Air Fund is proud to have supported the South African Presidency as a knowledge partner, including contributing to the G20 technical paper that informed ministers’ deliberations.
We look forward to feeding in to the South African Presidency’s technical air quality workshop, and working with future G20 hosts to ensure air quality remains high on the G20 agenda.
