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Our Kids AirIA_B_TM2025-02-10T14:16:58+01:00

Impact of air pollution on children

Impact of air pollution on children

Right now, over 90 percent of children worldwide breathe polluted air that puts their health and development at serious risk.

Air pollution harms children’s growing lungs, brains, and hearts, and causes chronic diseases from asthma to cancer. The combustion of fossil fuels – oil, gas and coal – is a key contributor to dirty air.

Shockingly, nearly 2,000 children under the age of five die everyday due to health impacts linked to air pollution.

Children are uniquely vulnerable to air pollution because they are still growing and developing. They breathe twice as quickly as adults, taking in more air relative to their body weight. They are active, often outside, and younger children are closer to the ground, where pollutants peak.

The burning of fossil fuels is destroying our children’s health today, as well as stealing their futures. We need clean air and clean energy to protect what we love: our children, our neighbourhoods, and our planet.

Our work

It is alarming that our children’s health is being damaged with every breath they take. Parents, grandparents and caregivers want urgent action to safeguard the health of children, and protect their futures.

Since 2021, Our Kids’ Climate has been bringing parents and carers together across the world to take action on air pollution, fossil fuels, and children’s health, when we presented a global parents’ letter to the president of COP26.

In 2024, we established a Clean Air Circle of mothers and activists to steer and deepen our campaigning on this vital issue. We need bold policy changes to drastically reduce air pollution and accelerate the transition away from polluting fossil fuels towards safe, abundant, clean energy. Our Circle includes organizers from Ecuador, Ghana, India, Poland, Mexico, South Africa, and the USA.

We are bringing mothers’ voices to the WHO Second Global Conference on Clean Air in Cartagena, Colombia in March 2025, and organizing vibrant street actions across the world to call for clean air for all children everywhere – more news on that soon!

Meet Our Clean Air Circle

Ana Badillo, Quito, Ecuador
Ana Badillo, Quito, Ecuador
Ana Badillo is an economist, researcher, and painter who blends evidence-based insights with everyday experiences to mobilize people in the fight for environmental justice. She is co-founder of Pacha Ayllu – Families for Future Ecuador, a group of families in Quito, Ecuador working to secure a clean, healthy and sustainable environment for Ecuadorian children . Motivated by her three-year-old daughter and concern for Ecuador’s environmental health, Ana and her group raise public awareness about the critical importance of breathing clean air – especially for children and elders – and urge leaders to pursue a just transition away from fossil fuels.
Areli Carreón, Mexico
Areli Carreón, Mexico
Areli Carreón is a mother of two, and a core organizer at Mamás y Papás por el Clima from Mexico, which brings together moms and dads in action against climate change. She is also a founding member of Bicitekas A.C. that promotes bicycle use as a clean air transportation solution in Mexico City, since 1998. She coordinated the National campaign Hazla de Tos por Aire Limpio in 2011, mobilizing cycling groups to achieve more stringent national regulation for air pollutants. Bicitekas is part of the Observatorio Ciudadano por la Calidad del Aire – A Citizens’ Air Quality Observatory in the Metropolitan area of Mexico City.
Bhavreen Kandhari, India
Bhavreen Kandhari, India
Bhavreen is an inspiring and experienced campaigner who is pushing for clean air in India and beyond. She is a co-founder of Warrior Moms, which brings mothers together across India to call for clean air for the sake of their children’s health. Bhavreen has spearheaded other public movements and campaigns in India to call for action on environmental justice issues, such as ‘My Right To Breathe’ and ‘Delhi Trees SOS’. Her campaigning is motivated by her twin daughters and her concerns about Delhi’s excessively polluted air.
Kamila Kadzidlowska, Poland
Kamila Kadzidlowska, Poland
Kamila is a documentary filmmaker and one of the central organizers in Rodzice dla Klimatu (Parents For Future Poland). She developed a short film called In the Fumes of the Black Gold that features people deeply affected by coal and the climate crisis, including former miners, youth, and families living in the shadow of the Bełchatów coal plant. She is active in campaigns that are helping to raise awareness about the health impact of air pollution on children with parents, healthcare providers, and policy-makers, and helped secure Warsaw’s endorsement of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty together with other Polish parent and youth activists.
Patience Agyekum, Ghana
Patience Agyekum, Ghana
Patience works with children, young people, and parents to push for clean air, climate action, and accountability from policymakers in Ghana. She leads policy-level advocacy at the Strategic Youth Network for Development (SYND), working to ensure that the voices of young people are heard and included in Ghana’s climate plans. She led the formation of a new Parents for Future group in Ghana in June 2022. Patience is also part of the Coalition of Air Quality and Environmental Management (CAQM) in Ghana, a group of civil society organisations, academics, and journalists advocating for the government to put in place policies that prevent air pollution.
Valinda Chan, Boston, USA
Valinda Chan, Boston, USA
Valinda is a passionate organizer and community leader in East Boston, Massachusetts working at the intersection between environmental, racial, economic, health, and housing justice. Recently Valinda’s work has focused on air pollution and founding the Logan Community Clean Air Coalition. Through practical interventions such as installing air quality sensors to collect data and air purifiers in-home daycare centers, Valinda takes an intersectional approach to addressing the impacts of air pollution beyond climate and environmental spaces. Valinda is also a Team Co-Coordinator with Mothers Out Front on the Core Team of Mutual Aid Eastie.
Xoli Fuyani, South Africa
Xoli Fuyani, South Africa
Xoli is a Founder of Black Girls Rising and an environmentalist who has led groups for over a decade. She spent more than 15 years successfully educating intergenerational groups about environmental issues, developing school programs that inspire learners to make thoughtful choices, and helping older youth discover their power. As Director of Black Girls Rising, a Black-led youth-focused organisation, she is helping empower holistic, well-informed, embodied girl leaders to be at the forefront of climate action, focusing on building emotional well-being and trauma-informed Afrocentric awareness around climate advocacy. Xoli is also a Board Member of the African Climate Alliance and Zero Waste Association of South Africa.

Clean Air Stories

Across our global network, parents and carers are impacted by air pollution, and working to tackle it. Read some of their powerful stories.

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Find out more about Our Kids’ Climate’s story

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