Long-Term Sustainability Goals for Air Pollution Reduction by Local Governments

We have already discussed local authority air pollution control, but no measures will be effective without clear-cut objectives. Thus, in this article, we will focus on sustainable development goals – what should local governments aim to achieve. Interested? Read on.

Table of Contents

• What Should Sustainable Development Goals Tackle?
• Setting Up Long-term Sustainability Goals
• The Takeaway

What Should Sustainable Development Goals Tackle?

Let’s begin by discussing the issues consuming local governments in terms of sustainability. According to the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the first major pain point is public transportation – only half of the population living in cities has convenient access to it. This is quite an issue since sustainable transport is the key to decreasing CO2 emissions.

Secondly, there is the problem of energy. There are two main concerns regarding this aspect:

• Energy efficiency – While the general energy efficiency improves, the pace is slow. We have reached only a 1.4% growth from 2015 to 2020.
• Clean energy sources – The funding for sustainable energy is declining quickly from year to year. We need to reverse this trend.

Setting Up Long-term Sustainability Goals

Knowing the problems that you need to address, it is time to set goals. Our advice here is to use a kind of twist on OKRs (objective key results).

Your objective should be a drop in number of pollutants in the air. For this, you may use the WHO air quality guidelines, since in 2019 99% of the population still lived in areas that did not meet these criteria.

For the key results, you should choose particular areas through which you want to achieve the aim. These may include:

• % increase in investment into local sustainable energy sources,
• % of the urban area covered with air quality sensors,
• % increase in the number of people commuting by public transport,
• % of the urban area designed with the principles of green urban planning.

The Takeaway

While preparing long-term sustainability goals, you need to understand the issues that you currently face, decide how you want to address them and estimate what results you want to achieve. Do not be afraid to choose ambitious goals – the more incentive you have, the faster you will tackle the problem, and time is a resource that we lack in the battle with air pollution.

Was this article helpful? You may also read: How Does the EU Regulate Air Pollution?

Sources:

https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal11

https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal7