Spain has an opportunity to turn the right to breathe clean air into a real and enforceable guarantee. With this objective, Salud por Derecho has submitted amendments to the draft reform of the Air Quality Law to ensure that the new legislation protects people’s health and facilitates access to justice for harm caused by air pollution.<\/p>\n
What is this process about?<\/strong><\/p>\n The Spanish Government is reforming the current Air Quality and Atmospheric Protection Law (Law 34\/2007) to transpose the new European Ambient Air Quality Directive (Directive (EU) 2024\/2881). This European legislation marks a historic milestone by recognising the right of citizens to seek accountability and obtain compensation if they suffer damage to their health due to the inaction or negligence of public authorities in addressing ambient air pollution. However, the Ministry’s current draft leaves these mechanisms insufficiently defined, significantly weakening their effectiveness.<\/p>\n Why are we taking action?<\/strong><\/p>\n Air pollution causes illness and death. Exposure to air pollution results in a substantial burden of avoidable mortality. It is not only an environmental issue but also one of the greatest threats to public health in Europe and worldwide.<\/p>\n It disproportionately affects the most vulnerable. Poor air quality has a particularly severe impact on children, older people, people living with chronic diseases and populations with lower socioeconomic status.<\/p>\n The Government’s draft makes the right illusory.<\/strong> As currently drafted, seeking compensation for harm caused by chronic exposure to air pollution would become an almost impossible and prohibitively complex legal process for ordinary citizens.<\/p>\n Health must have a place in the courts.<\/strong> Health organisations and patient groups currently face legal barriers when trying to defend the right to breathe clean air before the courts.<\/p>\n What exactly are we calling for?<\/strong><\/p>\n We urge the inclusion of four fundamental pillars in the law.<\/p>\n Breathing clean air cannot be a privilege. It must be a legal guarantee. Through these amendments, we want health to stop being the forgotten dimension of environmental policymaking and for the legal framework to align with international commitments and WHO scientific guidance.<\/p>\n\n