AUC, University of Surrey Bring Together International Experts to Combat Air Pollution

According to the World Health Organization, air pollution causes 7 million premature deaths worldwide, disproportionately affecting poor and vulnerable communities and exacerbating inequalities in Official Development Assistance countries.

To combat this problem, AUC hosted an international summit on June 20, calling on countries across the world to accelerate efforts to make clean air a basic human right. A group of international academics, government professionals and private sector representatives gathered at AUC to discuss how they can develop a global platform to bring cleaner air to all by sharing knowledge and coordinating awareness campaigns.

The Cairo event is part of a two-year project, Clean Air Engineering for Cities (CArE-Cities), which brings together 11 cities from Official Development Assistance countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The project’s first meeting was held at Surrey earlier in the year.

Ahmed El-Gendy, associate professor of construction engineering and director of the Environmental Engineering Program at AUC, said: “Air pollution is a complex global issue. It is one of the major environmental challenges currently facing most cities worldwide. Therefore, it has been the focus of many recent global events on the environment, aiming for solutions to such a challenge. We are glad to host this event at AUC as part of our collaboration with the University of Surrey, bringing world-class experts and academics in this field from Egypt and Europe aiming for fruitful collaborations that could contribute to solutions for the air pollution problems in cities. We welcome all the participants and look forward to the continuation of our successful collaboration.”

Professor Prashant Kumar, director of GCARE, noted, “If we are to realize our collaborative vision of Clean Air for All, we must continue to hold events such as these workshops, where a full and frank exchange of ideas is encouraged. I have found through over 15 years of experience in this field that it is through these honest conversations and sharing of research that new partnerships are formed and – hopefully – a new path forward to making our planet’s air cleaner and safer for generations to come.”