Todays’ society is characterised by a very competitive information landscape and there are several environmental problems that are getting worse. In contrast, air pollution in Europe and the Nordics is improving (although not fast enough). Correspondingly, it is difficult for air pollution policy makers and scientists to reach out with messages on the importance and benefits of reducing air pollution further. Nordic cooperation and coordination can be a way to breach through this dense information competition.
Abstracts of presentations
Daniel Lissoni, European Environmental Bureau (EEB)
Daniel Lissoni addressed the critical need for improved communication about clean air and outlined ideas to elevate the importance of clean air issues in the public's mind. Clean air is vital not only for public health but also for economic and environmental sustainability. However, despite the availability of data and technical solutions, public awareness and prioritisation of clean air remain low. The presentation aimed to bridge that gap by exploring effective communication strategies.
The presentation began by outlining the current state of play with air pollution communication in Europe, focusing on the major challenges and barriers that prevent effective public engagement. While the science behind air quality is robust, clean air issues often seem abstract or are perceived as a secondary concern compared to more visible environmental issues. The presentation discussed the importance of framing air quality messages in ways that resonate personally, such as highlighting health impacts on vulnerable groups like children.
The presentation provided specific recommendations to improve clean air communication, including leveraging digital platforms, storytelling, and emotional engagement. It was demonstrated how public campaigns can make air pollution's impact more tangible, encouraging public support for policy changes. Additionally, emphasis was on the potential for citizen science initiatives to foster a sense of ownership and understanding among communities.
The goal of the presentation was to inspire coordinated action that places clean air at the forefront of public and policy agendas, ultimately leading to tangible improvements in both air quality and public health across the region.
Line Merete Karlsoen, Norwegian Environment Agency
Line Merete Karlsoen informed about a Norwegian governmental Air Quality Collaboration Group consisting of the Norwegian Meteorological Institute (Met), the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, the Norwegian Directorate of Health and the Norwegian Environment Agency.
Together these governmental bodies have created an air quality forecast service for the whole of Norway. The public, including vulnerable groups, and the municipalities, which are local authorities for air quality, are the main target groups. The intention is also to encourage the media to use the forecast actively.
In addition, the cooperation has created a service with historical air quality data, like concentration maps and maps for land-use planning, population exposure and source apportionment. And a mitigation calculator. The target groups are the municipalities and others working with air quality. Fine scale emission data are used, which are also available through a database. The model used is urban EMEP (uEMEP) developed by Met.no.
This collaboration has made it possible to provide these services and is an example of a valuable interdisciplinary cooperation. The goal is to offer relevant information about air quality and to raise awareness and knowledge about air pollution, primarily to municipalities and others working with air quality in their work for securing good air quality. The services are also valuable in the government’s own work.
The Air Quality Collaboration Group has had good experience with:
Involving the users actively to ensure that the features offered are useful and relevant, and that they trust and rely in the services. Both the public, and especially the municipalities, since they are local authorities.
Using an already existing platform, the weather service Yr, to reach out with the forecast.
Formalizing the structure of our cooperation with yearly goals for communication and dissemination work, making it clear who is responsible for each goal and reporting results in an annual report.
There have also been a couple of challenging experiences:
Reaching out to everyone that could benefit from the services, including in within the governmental organizations included in the cooperation.
Reaching out with the health advice in the forecast.
Communicating uncertainty, i.e. why there can be differences between monitoring data and modelled data.
In Norway there is also a package to support the municipalities in their transition to a low emission society, including several communication products. The package includes: 1. A financial support scheme for climate measures ("Klimasats"). 2. Guidance on climate planning and measures. 3. Webinars, i.e. about how to include climate and nature into land-use planning. 4. Podcast with inspiring examples. 5. Climate emission inventory for municipalities and county municipalities. 6. Templates for calculating effects of climate measures. 7. Guidance on how to include climate in public procurement. 8. Facebook-group for "local climate work".
Short overview of discussions
Even though there is much data and information on air pollution/air quality readily available, public awareness and political prioritisation remain relatively low. Improved and intensified communication activities, directed to the general public as well as to policymakers, require additional funding.
The fact that air pollution is a threat not only to human health but also to nature and biodiversity needs to be highlighted. Methods to better visualise the damage caused by air pollution should be explored.
As policy debates linked to air pollution control action often tend to focus on the costs of proposed measures, it is important to communicate also the benefits to health and the environment in both quantitative and qualitative terms.
Recommendations
Initiatives & Projects
The Nordic cooperation on air quality should aim to:
Ensure better access to reliable air quality forecasts for Nordic municipalities and citizens. That this is feasible is shown e.g. by a project run by the Norwegian Air Quality Collaboration Group. Nordic countries would benefit from cooperating and sharing experiences on this topic.
Link air quality forecasts with well-thought out ‘action advice’ for citizens. To expand the numbers of receivers (and to avoid misunderstandings and/or confusion regarding the advice) it is useful to link forecasts with commercially available apps. Nordic health experts could develop templates on recommended “action advice” to be used by such apps.
Clarify that air quality has improved over time, but that more needs to be done. There appears to be a fairly widespread view among the general public that air quality is deteriorating. To motivate additional action to reduce emissions, it is important to show that the various actions taken over the last 30–40 years have been successful in reducing emissions and improving air quality, and moreover they have also been very cost-effective. Nordic ex-post analyses would be useful to further this argument.
Raise the profile of nature protection. While nature protection was the main driver for international action to cut air pollutant emissions in the 1970s and 1980s, nowadays air quality policies are primarily focused on lowering negative health impacts. Communicating the importance of a healthy nature and functioning ecosystems is important. Joint Nordic initiatives could be developed to find effective ways to communicate the importance of healthy nature and functioning ecosystems.
Ensure better public information on air quality. On top of the voluntary informative air quality forecasts mentioned above, Annex IX of the new AAQD contains a number of requirements for member states regarding information to the public, including information on impacts on health and vegetation, and timely information about actual or predicted exceedances of alert thresholds, and any information threshold. Nordic countries would benefit from cooperating and sharing experiences on how best to implement these requirements.