All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on air pollution

Speakers

• Geraint Davies MP Chair of the APPG on Air Pollution
• Larissa Lockwood, Director of Clean Air, Global Action Plan
• Nyeleti Brauer-Maxaeia, Co-Founder, Choked Up 
• Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah World Health Organisation Advocate, Health and Air Quality
• Professor Sir Stephen Holgate, MRC Clinical Professor of Immunopharmacology, UKRI Clean Air Champion and Special Advisor to the RCP on Air Quality
• Cllr Adam Harrison, Cabinet Member for a Sustainable Camden London Borough of Camden

Geraint Davies MP, Chair of the APPG on Air Pollution

Geraint is the Labour and Co-operative MP for Swansea West. Geraint sits on three select committees: The Environmental Audit Committee, the European Scrutiny Committee and the Welsh Affairs Committee. He chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Air Pollution. 

Larissa Lockwood, Director of Clean Air, Global Action Plan

Larissa leads Global Action Plan’s clean air work, including the UK’s largest air pollution campaign – Clean Air Day – that helps millions of people learn more about air pollution and take action to protect their health. She created the Clean Air Hospital Framework programme in partnership with Great Ormond Street Hospital to help the health sector act on air pollution.  

Throughout her career, Larissa has worked to drive sustainable development to improve health and well-being. She has advised government and the NHS through the Sustainable Development Commission’s Healthy Futures programme, and helped establish the NHS Sustainable Development Unit. Larissa worked on the first NHS Carbon Reduction Strategy, and has also led The Carbon Trust’s flagship public sector carbon management programmes.  

Destiny Boka Batesa, Choked Up

Destiny Boka Batesa (they/them) is eighteen years old and the co-founder of Choked Up; a campaign run by black and brown sixth formers campaigning pushing for changes to clean-air law to protect the communities worst affected by air pollution. The communities that they advocate in question are mainly communities of colour and they want this positive change after having seen first hand the dire impacts of living in toxic air and the harm from lack of governmental intervention to prevent such tragedies from happening again. In the short time the campaign has been active, they have been involved in multiple roundtable conversations, speeches and guerilla campaigns alongside their peers.

Rosamund Kissi-Debrah, Co-Founder and Executive Director, The Ella Roberta Family Foundation

Rosamund is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Ella Roberta Family Foundation that was set up after the death of her daughter Ella in 2013 from a rare and severe form of asthma. Rosamund works to raise awareness of the dangers of  asthma in young people and their families through education. She talks at school assemblies, visits local community groups and advises health professionals on how the general public is able to access better treatment. Rosamund also represents the views of parents with children with asthma to clinicians and decision makers.

Professor Sir Stephen T Holgate CBE FMedSc

Sir Stephen Holgate is Professor of Immunopharmacology and a respiratory physician at the University of Southampton. After qualifying in Medicine in London, he pursued research into the mechanisms of asthma and allergy involving a wide range of different approaches. His work has resulted in 1000 publications. He was a member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, founder chair of the DH Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants, Chair of the Hazardous Substances Advisory Committee, President of the British Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, British Thoracic Society and British Association for Lung Research. He is currently a Member of the Natural Environment Research Council, Special Advisor to the RCP on Air Quality and the UKRI Clean Air Champion. He was appointed CBE in 2011 for contributions to clinical science and Knighted in 2020 for Medical Research.

Councillor Adam Harrison, Cabinet Member for a Sustainable Camden London Borough of Camden 

Adam Harrison is a Labour councillor on the London Borough of Camden, holding the position of Cabinet Member for a Sustainable Camden. He leads on cleaner air, green spaces, waste and recycling, transport, sustainability and reducing emissions across the borough. The London Borough of Camden held the UK’s first citizens’ assembly on climate change and has developed a Climate Action Plan aiming to deliver on the citizens’ assembly’s 17 recommendations. This CAP is a five-year programme of actions, including introducing segregated cycle routes, requiring all new major developments to be zero carbon and switching the Council’s energy supplies to 100% renewable sources. The council has developed a Clean Air Action Plan to improve air quality in the borough through working in collaboration with all members of Camden's community. 

Agenda

Welcome & introductions – Geraint Davies, MP (Chair)

Opening statement and Clean Air Day call to action – Larissa Lockwood, Director of Clean Air, Global Action Plan 

Impact of air pollution on children’s health explored through three speakers

Child patients share their lived experience of air pollution

Destiny Boka Batesa from Choked Up

Rosamund Kissi-Debrah talks about her experience as a parent and campaigner, and how we can make effective change

Health impacts, plus call for paediatricians to talk to parents about air pollution - Stephen Holgate

A local authority perspective of what action can be taken to improve air quality - Cllr Adam Harrison

Q&A - chaired by Geraint Davies, MP, followed by closing remarks from the chair