Past team

GAHP began 2019 with a new report–Pollution Knows No Borders—launched on January 8 at a global briefing held simultaneously in New York and London. Thank you to all GAHP members who submitted comments, which were incorporated into the report.

Richard Fuller, President of Pure Earth (Secretariat to the GAHP) was joined at the briefing by Gina McCarthy, Former Administrator, EPA, and director, Center for Climate Health and the Global Environment, Harvard University; Janez Potočnik, Co-Chair of UN Intl. Resource Panel; Baskut Tuncak, UN Special Rapporteur; J. Carl Ganter, Co-Founder & Director, Circle of Blue; and Jack Caravanos, Director of Research, Pure Earth, and professor, College of Global Public Health, NYU.

They presented evidence documenting the growing transboundary pollution threat, showing how pollution travels in the air and water, and through food and products in the global supply chain. A series of interactive data visualizations from Carnegie Mellon’s CREATE Lab was unveiled to illustrate the flow of toxins. The report concludes that everyone is affected, and reveals solutions to target pollution wherever it occurs.

“When it comes to pollution, we are all connected,” said Fuller.

“This is not just about problems in far away paces,” McCarthy reminded the crowd gathered.

The report is a “loud and clear call” for global cooperation on transboundary pollution, said Potočnik.

The launch of the report is being accompanied by a global outreach campaign that includes two petitions that have together gathered close to a thousand signatures to date. The petitions will be delivered to leaders at UNEA 4 in Nairobi, Kenya this March.

Learn more and download the report.