Legal Framework and Policy Design - Stage 5

01 Engage in advanced training and ensure you have access to experts needed for in-house research capabilities

Facilitate collaboration among science and research organizations and hire experts into your centrally funded institution. Engage in further study to determine if you need to regulate additional sector categories and/or air pollutants. Design and/or use an existing advanced training network for your staff and others in your region focusing on health and environmental risks, especially those in underserved communities. Provide on-line courses (or link to existing ones by other organizations), and webinars for your air quality professionals. Develop a learning management system to provide training needed for your local and national officials. Your training and learning system could become a center of excellence in specialized areas of expertise in air quality management components that could be used regionally and shared worldwide (see this example from Kenya).  

Some countries may not have the resources to run complex models and tools and will need simpler approaches in the interim to improve the information available to them to make decisions.  Providing training on modeling and helping other countries in your region is part of a robust advanced training program for air quality management.  

Coordinate with universities, education departments and schools to include air quality training in their curricula. 

02 Engage in peer-learning, share your expertise with neighboring countries, and become a regional champion

As discussed in Stage 4, Step 4 of the Legal Framework and Policy Design Guidance, engaging with regional and global cooperation networks can give you access to practical knowledge and expertise on air pollution abatement (including transboundary pollution).  You can also use these networks as a platform to share your own expertise with your peers in your region – possibly becoming a center of excellence or training hub. If you have developed specific expertise on a segment of air quality management (monitoring, modelling, forecasting…) or have successfully implemented best practices in different sectors (agriculture, household energy, transport, waste management…), you could create a working group or hub, embedded into existing cooperation networks, to explore these topics and share your expertise with your counterparts in the region. Funding organizations and philanthropies can help provide resources to support peer-learning and South-South cooperation.  

In this advanced stage, you are leading efforts at the national, regional and global level to propose amendments to existing environmental agreements, enter into new agreements on air pollution and related policies, or proposing resolution text and leading regional networks and global efforts that involve reducing air pollution. The Cape Town Ministerial Declaration on Air Quality is an excellent example of this type of work.  

03 Address nitrogen management and its effects on air pollution

Air pollution is a central link for interactions between ozone, nitrogen, climate, and ecosystems. Air pollution from nitrogen compounds is one of the most important risks to biodiversity. Reactive nitrogen compounds are emitted into the air primarily by emissions from the agriculture sector (mostly ammonia) and NOx emissions from the transport, energy, industry and household energy sectors. This further highlights the need to integrate environmental policies and take a multi-pollutant approach in your AQMP. There is research on the long-term effects of atmospheric nitrogen and ozone on carbon sequestration, biodiversity and other ecosystem effects, and their interaction with climate change (see Environmental Impact Assessment Guidance Stage 4, Steps 3-9 for further information on the quantification of impacts and scenario analysis for policy making, and Stage 5, Step 7 for cross-agency approaches to sharing data on vulnerable ecosystems). Scientific, technical and policy work on global and regional nitrogen cycles need close cooperation of air policies with agriculture, transport, energy and other policy areas. At this advanced stage of air quality management, nitrogen emissions and its interactions with other policy areas should be investigated and addressed.   

04 Mainstream gender and socio-economic equity in your legal and policy framework

Consider how your Air Quality Management Plan (AQMP) and associated regulations and policies can protect vulnerable groups (economically disadvantaged communities, women, children, the elderly) from disproportionate health and environmental risks. Part of this work includes training your institution’s leaders to involve members from these communities in the decision-making process. Ensure your AQMP and broader legal and policy framework are taking into account gender, social and economic equity in standard setting and policy development (see Stage 2, Step 2). Engage in a community capacity-building program and provide public awareness training in the community. Consult different communities on your planned legislation and policies, and set forth a process for public participation (see Public Engagement & Communication Guidance Stage 5, Step 1). By Stage 5 your AQMP fully integrates climate policy. This should include taking into account climate justice along with disproportionate effects of air pollution on vulnerable communities (see Health Impact Assessment Guidance Stage 4, Step 6). 

05 Consider defining clean air zones based on monitoring data and health impact assessment 

A clean air zone is a designated area where air pollution levels are consistently exceeding the Ambient Air Quality Standards (AAQS), because of high emissions and/or weather and topographic conditions. Clean air zones are typically located in urban areas, but some may be located in rural areas where local conditions tend to trap pollution (e.g. a valley). Additional measures, strategies and policies are needed to improve air quality in these areas, protect inhabitants’ health, and eventually comply with AAQS.  

Several countries have implemented clean air zones. In the United States for instance, they are known as nonattainment areas, which have different classifications based on the severity of their air quality problem. These different classifications then trigger specific requirements. South Africa has established three clean air zones, called air quality priority areas. Each area must submit its own Air Quality Management Plan (AQMP), with the overarching objective to bring air pollution levels in the area in compliance with the AAQS within agreed timeframes. Representatives from national priority areas are also invited to share lessons learned and best practices during an annual summit organised by the government.  It is important to look at monitoring data and health impact analysis to determine your clean air zones.  

06 Increase non-technical, innovative and energy efficient measures in your Air Quality Management Plan

By this Stage, your jurisdiction has probably included non-technical measures such as pricing strategies, research investments, infrastructure planning, or awareness raising in its AQMP. Some of these measures may also be easier to implement as they do not require a national regulatory framework. In Stage 5, ensure you are working across the community, engaging key stakeholders and the general public on behaviour change measures, such as choosing to bike, walk or use public transport instead of driving individual cars (see the Public Engagement and Communication Guidance, Stage 4, Step 7 for more information on behaviour change approaches).  

Include additional innovative sustainability policies to your AQMP. Look at expanding voluntary and incentive-based programs, renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies and measures, land-use measures including tree planting, public transportation, electrification, measures to address burning of waste and crop residue, and behavioral change measures, including dietary choices. Voluntary and non-technical measures are sometimes difficult to quantify but they do have benefits to clean air and overall quality of life. Coordinating your AQMP with community development plans is part of an advanced approach and can contribute to mitigating the impacts of increasing emissions in high population growth areas.     

07 Develop a fully integrated clean air and climate approach based on health and ecosystem risks

Once your AQMP is adopted and you have covered the main sectors and control measures for your area, added additional pollutants and linked your plan with climate policy, you can work to ensure that you have a fully integrated clean air and climate approach based on health and ecosystem risks. Planning should address issues related to air quality such as energy, climate, ecosystems, land-use schemes, sustainable development and transportation planning. The Global Economic Assessment for Climate and Clean Air provides a list of 25 key solutions that address both air pollution and climate change (UNEP/CCAC, 2026).

Develop and use the understanding of human health and ecosystem risks from exposure to air pollution from the AQMx Health and Environmental Impact Assessment Guidance and incorporate these risks into the integrated AQMP. Analytical tools are available or are being developed to help fill in technical information and screening of your area to assist in developing the best risk-based approach. Tools that incorporate ambient and risk data, air toxics data, emissions sources and facility information, an index of disadvantaged communities and population data, climate data, and sector-based emissions will be important to use.  

Some of this work will have already been conducted in earlier stages and some of the steps noted in the analytical framework below are also overarching goals for clean air as a whole. Some of the indicators could have already been integrated into your AQMP.  

Your comprehensive analytical framework could include the following steps:  

• Assess health and ecosystem impacts of air pollution. Areas that are meeting AAQS may have health and ecosystem risks that have not been calculated.
• Estimate costs and benefits for (in)action.
• Identify and implement effective mitigation policies including control strategies identified by local experts with on-the-ground knowledge, encouraging collaboration between multiple stakeholders, and identifying and leveraging public and private resources.
• Use clear and consistent indicators to demonstrate effectiveness of said policies, including indicators that go beyond typical air quality data and include quality of life measures, reduced megawatt usage, reduced Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT), reduced fossil fuel consumption, reduced exposure, morbidity and mortality or exposure, increased electrification, increased public transportation and mobility such as bike lanes, increased forest coverage, increased consumer education.
• Meet the AAQS for PM2.5, ozone, and other criteria pollutants of concern.
• Achieve risk reductions for HAPs and GHGs of concern.
• Engage stakeholders through your consultation process on the fully integrated AQMP. Refer back to Stage 3, Step 4 of the Legal Framework and Policy Design Guidance, and conduct another formal stakeholder consultation.  
• Set up institutional arrangements or coordination mechanisms with other sectoral ministries in your government to engage in joint policy-making and achieve the fully integrated approach. If this coordination is done well, it will be possible to share and leverage resources.

One of the most important things to do at this stage is to develop a more detailed approach to coordinating with other ministries, agencies, and institutions (including non-governmental organizations) to break the silos of work in sectors that have different policy responsibilities and goals as noted in Stage 4, Step 8 of the Legal Framework & Policy Design Guidance on sector-based approaches.   

08 Consider medium and long-term objectives

Develop a medium and long-term strategy for clean air goals and climate action. A good example of a long-term strategy is Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want. Within this, objectives have been linked to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. In addition, the Paris Agreement under the UNFCCC has a process for countries to report on their long-term strategies.  

Conducting scientific and technical assessments also help in the development of medium and long-term goals and objectives. There may need to be work beyond your local and national government. For example, you may have discovered in Stage 4 that reaching your air quality objectives might require emission reductions from neighbouring countries.  In this case, a medium-term strategy could be to work closely with those countries bilaterally or through your regional cooperation network to reduce transboundary air pollution. Priorities also shift overtime and the benefits of your work and earlier action will become apparent. For example, it is possible you will need to shift your goals from cooking and heating to energy transformation solutions. Dietary change or energy efficiency standards for industry may become more important in your area (UNEP/CCAC, 2026).  

09 Evaluate progress and continue to improve your Air Quality Management Plan as new knowledge and data become available 

The air quality management process is iterative in nature. As you evaluate progress, decide on what needs to change or improve given advances in scientific knowledge and technical capacity.  You should check the most recent monitoring data, update and improve emission inventories, and assess real air quality improvement using clear indicators (exposure, impacts on health and ecosystems) to see if refinements to your Air Quality Management Plan (AQMP) are needed.  

If you are considering amendments to your Ambient Air Quality Standards (AAQS), source-based legislation, or other regulations, you will need to update your AQMP accordingly to include the new measures analyzed and adopted under Stages 4 and 5. As time advances, there will be technological innovations and advanced tools made available that will help improve air quality. Continuous improvement planning is an important step in evaluating your progress and mapping out your medium-long term goals and objectives in Step 8 above.  

Transparency and accountability of public action is important when laws, regulations and policies are adopted and implemented. The public will want to see improvements in air quality, and associated reductions in health and environmental impacts. Including strong provisions for stakeholder and public consultations into your legislative and policy-making process, and establishing an open-access information system where the public can access real-time air quality data, is key to support this sense of trust and transparency (see Public Engagement and Communications Guidance Stage 5, Step 2). As part of your medium and long-term planning (see Step 8 above) it is good to include an evaluation of progress which will help guide you to develop your longer-term objectives going forward and in pursuit of a successful air quality management program.