A proposed law is being made champions by a cross-party group of London MPs to establish clean air as a human right.
Bill is known as “Ella Law”, nine-year-old Ella in memory of Adu-K-Debrah Fled as the cause of death as the first person with air pollution,
Since Brexit, the European Union has carried forward with tight air pollution goals compared to the UK. This bill will force England to follow the suit by completing the boundaries of strict new World Health Organization by 2030.
After the parliamentary time escaped during the previous attempts, the Clean Air (Human Rights) Bill in Commons is being re-presented by former Green Party co-leader and London Assembly Member Sian Berry.
Speaking in the Commons on Tuesday, Berry said that British people should “grow up and get old without stopping lungs, can be stopped, and disabled diseases without stopping and potentially fatal losses are being done with air pollution to stop our lungs, hearts and minds”.
He quoted a new report by the Royal College of Physician, stating that the evidence collected in the last decade suggested that now “there were relations between air pollution and almost every limb in the body and diseases affecting them”.
The families were still losing the loved ones, they argued, worse than pollution for dementia, cancer and heart disease.
Berry, who is now the Green MP for the Brighton Pavilion, however praised recent reforms in London’s air quality.
Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez), which charge the most polluting vehicles, was introduced in 2019 by London’s Labor Mayor, Sir Sadiq Khan, and in 2023 to expand to include outer London.
Berry said that he hopes that the government will be behind the new bill.
London MPs also supported this, including Labor’s Stella Creesy, Uma Kumaran and Bell Rebero-AD.
Clean Air (Human Rights) Bill will receive its second reading in Commons on 7 November 2025.
