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...
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.
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.
Please find below the text of Lidia’s speech at the UNGA2025.
This year marks exactly 70 years since the first ambient air pollution legislation was enacted, in the US, and research funding established. Building on this, 8 years later, the Clean Air Act of 1963 was first federal legislation to control air quality. This was the beginning, and most countries around the world now have legally binding ambient air quality regulations. It wasn’t a quick process, and it doesn’t mean that air is clean everywhere, below the levels of the WHO Air Quality Guidelines. However, thanks to these regulations, the air we breathe outside is getting cleaner. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the quality of the air we breathe indoors. It’s almost as if time has stopped, and society’s understanding of the impact of indoor air pollution is as low as it was decades ago. No country has yet legislated indoor air quality performance standards. That is, monitoring air quality in real time right here, in this room, to control air pollution, to protect us here, now. Last year, under my leadership, a scientific consensus paper was published in the journal Science, offering a blueprint for starting the process: what to monitor, how to do it using existing sensor technologies, and how to set standard values. And the standards can already be met by existing buildings! I’m proud to announce that thanks to Balvi’s philanthropic support and the contribution of my university, Queensland University of Technology, we’re on the cusp of proving that this is possible. The path to clean indoor air could follow a similar path to that of ambient air in this and many other countries: starting with monitoring, then moving to a reporting standard, and finally legislating indoor air quality in all public buildings. Any other route, such as voluntary monitoring or mere incentives, will only delay the process and increase social injustice. “Clean air is not a privilege” but a right, as emphasized at the WHO Global Conference on Air Quality and Health held in March. Clean air is a universal human right, part of the broader right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, as per the 2022 United Nations General Assembly Resolution. Therefore, it is the responsibility of governments to legislate on indoor air and the measures necessary to achieve it: monitoring, controlling emissions at source, and reducing human exposure to air pollutants. Society must be aware of its right to clean indoor air, but it is not an individual responsibility: we must demand that governments fulfil their duty. I sincerely hope that this meeting will serve as a catalyst for action toward clean indoor air and will inspire countries around the world to embark on this path.
Lidia Morawska at the UN General Assembly ‘Healthy Indoor Air: A Global Call to Action’
(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.
The ARC Training Centre for Advanced Building Systems Against Airborne Infection Transmission is funded by the Australian Government and industry partners through the Australian Research Council Industrial Transformation Training Centre Program.
