What an incredible week it has been in New York at the United Nations General Assembly, with the first-ever UN session on IAQ ‘Healthy Indoor Air: A Global Call to Action’! A defining moment when the Global Pledge was first signed by Mr. Ervin Ibrahimović, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Montenegro, and Inger Andersen, Under-Secretary-General, UN and Executive Director, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The Global Pledge now has >165 signatures from organizations from all over the world – an international effort to formally recognize clean indoor air as essential to health and well-being, building on the World Health Organization ‘s 2021 declaration that clean air is a basic human right.
Australian delegates speaking at the event included Anna-Maria Arabia OAM (The Australian Academy of Science, Chief Executive), Academy Fellow and our Centre Director D/Prof Lidia Morawska FAA FTSE (QUT (Queensland University of Technology), co-chair of The Global Commission), Prof Dr Bronwyn King AO (Special Advisor – Clean Air at Burnet Institute), our partner Plum (Victoria) Stone (The Safer Air Project), alongside international speakers such as Prof Joseph Allen (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health), Rachel Hodgdon (CEO and President International WELL Building Institute), Dr Georgia Lagoudas (Science Policy Leader, Brown University Pandemic Center), Dr Sotirios Papathanasiou (Founder, GO AQS), José Luis Castro (WHO Director-General Special Envoy for Chronic Respiratory Diseases), Dr Katherine H. Walsh (Boston Public Schools), and many more.
During the session, the International WELL Building Institute Global Commission on Healthy Indoor Air as announced, an initiative led by the to combat the worldwide indoor air crisis. As co-chair, D/Prof Lidia Morawska will help lead the Commission in advancing a Global Framework for Action and catalysing the development of national blueprints to strengthen IAQ efforts around the world. The Commission’s Framework will be released by the end of 2026, alongside National Blueprints published on a rolling basis.
A big thank you to the organizers for your leadership in bringing together this community of IAQ change-makers (not already mentioned above): Air Club, Government of Montenegro, Gouvernement du France, & The OSLUV Project.
The WELL Showcase Event “Improving Indoor Air Quality to Unlock Human Health, Organizational Performance and a Sustainable Future” took place the following day. More on this to come.
🎥 View a recording of the event: (starts at 54 mins into the video) | 🔗 Read more about the event | 📖 Read the Academy’s “The case for clean indoor air” | ✒️ More about the Global Pledge & Sign here | 👉 More about the Commission
(L-R) University of Melbourne Professor Jason Monty, Founder Safer Air Project Plum Stone, QUT Professor Lidia Morawska, Australian Academy of Science Chief Executive Anna-Maria Arabia OAM, University of Melbourne Honorary Professor Bronwyn King AO, University of Melbourne Professor Rebecca Bentley, University of Melbourne Professor Christhina Candido, Australian Academy of Science Events and Outreach Manager Lisa Crocker and Australian Academy of Science Director of Philanthropy Kate Groves.