The duo is working to support the region’s efforts to tackle air pollution which suffers from high levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and particulate matter (PM).
1. Brussels Clean Air Partnership
The announcement came on April 24 by the office of Brussels Environment and Health Minister Alain Maron, who is co-leading the next phase of the Brussels Clean Air Partnership, launched in 2020, alongside Bloomberg Philanthropies. The second wave of this partnership is meant to support robust research and engage local organizations to promote sustainable urban mobility, such as increased measures to promote cycling and walking. Brussels has already restricted access to certain areas for cars and trucks.
“Air pollution kills hundreds of thousands of people across Europe every year,” said Michael R. Bloomberg, UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Climate Ambition and Solutions and Founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies and Bloomberg LP.
By expanding our partnership with the region of Brussels, we will help empower local leaders with the tools they need to target and reduce air pollution, fight climate change, and save lives.
Michael R. Bloomberg, UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Climate Ambition and Solutions and Founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies and Bloomberg LP
2. Air pollution
Air pollution is responsible for more than 400,000 premature deaths in Europe each year, including nearly 9,000 in Belgium alone, according to the European Environment Agency (EEA). The city of Brussels and Bloomberg Philanthropies said they have collected important data on air quality to identify pollution sources and their health impacts. Now, the Clean Air Partnership will provide additional support for academia, civil society, and the public sector to implement a wide range of projects and concrete actions to reduce air pollution and traffic-related greenhouse gas emissions.
“It is our duty to do everything we can so that the people of Brussels can breathe clean air and live in a healthy environment. These are collective solutions, and the uniqueness of our partnership builds upon the contributions of a variety of actors. Thanks to this partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies, we are taking concrete action on our mobility to make it more sustainable so that everyone can get around easily without polluting,” said Alain Maron, Brussels Minister for the Environment and Climate Transition.
3. Concrete actions
The next phase of the Brussels Clean Air Partnership will support the city of Brussels’ efforts to reduce air pollution across several key projects, including Creating an incubator for innovation in low-emission urban logistics as part of the Green Deal. The goal is to address the large emissions caused by the 16,000 trucks and 26,000 delivery vans travelling through Brussels.
“While freight transport represents only 17% of traffic, it is responsible for 28% of PM2.5, 34% of NOx emissions, and about 25% of traffic-related CO2 emissions.
Bloomberg Philantropies
Trying to address this problem, the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and its Mobilise Research Group will create an incubator for pilot projects to reduce emissions from the logistics sector.
The initiative will also develop an air quality modeling. Building on the data collected and tested in the Clean Air Partnership’s first phase, the Catholic University of Leuven will develop new real-time modeling to forecast and map NO2 levels. The outcome is expected to lead to the development of a tool to model air quality implications for the redevelopment of public spaces.
