Clean Air

We are working with partners across the globe to understand how to save lives at risk from poor air quality.

The University of Birmingham is forging international and interdisciplinary partnerships to help meet the global challenge of air pollution, in order to control emissions and reduce public-health impacts. Birmingham’s strength lies not only in establishing causes of air pollution, but in applying that learning to provide science advice in support of policy development.

Research into air pollution in the United Kingdom is supported by three new air quality supersites across the country, one of which is based at the University of Birmingham campus. The supersites use state-of-the-art monitoring systems to identify harmful pollutants more accurately than ever before.

Read the Clean Air Policy Briefs

Working globally to improve air quality

We are working in Delhi, rated as the most polluted city in the world for ambient air pollution by the World Health Organisation, to determine the sources and processes responsible. We are taking a systems approach to develop options to mitigate air pollution. This will allow us to assess the likely effectiveness of changes in behaviour — for example odd/even number plate traffic bans — to improve air quality.

In China, Professor Roy Harrison (leading international expert in the sources, transformations and health impacts of air pollution) and Professor Zongbo Shi are leading collaborations with top universities and research institutes in the area of atmospheric science - looking at the causes and impacts of poor air quality and atmospheric pollution events in Beijing, and the prediction of future extreme weather events in China and East Asia.  

Professor Francis Pope has research projects in the broad areas of air pollution, climate change, fundamental aerosol chemistry and microphysics, and city resilience. He leads the ‘A Systems Approach to Air Pollution (ASAP) East Africa’ which is taking a multi-disciplinary approach to tackling air pollution in the study cities of Nairobi, Kampala, and Addis Ababa.  

Professor Suzanne Bartington leads the multidisciplinary TRANSITION Clean Air Network addressing future air quality challenges. The network aim is to identify, prioritise and address new emerging indoor and outdoor air quality challenges linked to the UK low emission mobility revolution. 

Find out how researchers at The University of Birmingham are addressing the causes and impacts of poor air quality and atmospheric pollution to help shape global policy.

“Improving air quality across the West Midlands will bring direct health benefits to millions of people, reduce direct and indirect economic costs and enhance quality of life. The WM-Air project will bring together the latest environmental science from air pollution, health and economic research experts, to support policy makers, key industry bodies and businesses to help reduce the impacts of air pollution in the region, and support clean growth.”

Professor William Bloss

Professor William Bloss

Professor of Atmospheric Science

Discover more

  • Key staff

    Find out about our researchers who work collaboratively within this field

  • Policy experts

    University of Birmingham researchers and academic experts are working across all major policy areas, this guide aims to enable policy makers to contact researchers quickly and efficiently.

  • Media experts

    The University of Birmingham is one of the UK's leading universities for research and can offer expertise to the media on many different subjects.