The London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, has said that he is “proud to join with Baroness Jenny Jones and Rosamund Kissi-Debrah to support this Bill in Ella’s memory, as we know that Clean Air should be a Human Right.” 

A clip of the Mayor speaking can be found here  

Green Party peer, Baroness Jenny Jones, who has drafted the bill said: 

“My Clean Air (Human Rights) Bill aims to give the Mayor of London and local authorities more power to reduce pollution and improve the health of the people who elected them. I welcome Mayor Sadiq Khan’s support for a new clean air act that meets the challenges of the 21st Century. We must reduce all emissions, those that make people ill and those that are heating up our planet. Most of the solutions to the public health crisis caused by air pollution are the same solutions for the climate crisis. Solving one problem solves the other and that’s why it makes sense to act immediately by adopting the World Health Organisation’s latest guidelines.” 

London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, was answering a question from the Green Party’s London Assembly member, Zack Polanski about the Private Members Bill on Clean Air as a Human Right, which came top of the ballot in the Lord’s. It has gathered cross party support and looks set to complete all stages in the House of Lords before going onto the Commons. 2nd Reading is on Friday 8th July.

It is named Ella’s Law, in the hope that it will stop others suffering a similar fate to Ella Roberta Adoo Kissi-Debrah, who died of air pollution when 9 years old and was the first person to have air pollution put as an official cause of death. 

 The legislation: 

* links the solutions to the public health crisis of air pollution, with the reduction of emissions needed to deal with the climate crisis; 

* complements the government’s approach to giving local authorities and Mayors more responsibility for dealing with air pollution, by also giving them more powers to act;  

* protects people’s health by adopting the latest World Health Organisation guidelines and making their achievement a legally enforceable right.  

The Lords Library is preparing a briefing and the explanatory notes can be found at https://bills.parliament.uk/publications/46928/documents/2008.