As the Group of 20 leaders gather in Cape Town, clean air features on the agenda as a standalone priority for the first time in the forum's history. The reality, however, is stark. Outdoor air pollution claims 5.7 million lives each year, and a report released last week highlights the lack of international development finance for clean air. Only $3.7bn was spent globally in 2023, representing barely 1 percent of aid, with only a fraction reaching Africa. As the minister chairing the G20's environment workstream this year, I am proud to have worked with member countries and international organisations to place air pollution firmly on the agenda.

Bangkok, Thailand - The small park in Bangkok's Rama III district is mostly popular with runners circling its neatly trimmed garden track to the sound of birdsong. But on Thursday, they were joined by a convoy of fire trucks and half a dozen military drones, drawing dozens of curious onlookers. After an hour setting up, the drones and water cannon were pumping thick plumes of water into the empty sky above. Speakers blared warnings about the operation and instructed runners to keep their distance. The odd display was the Thai government's latest attempt at curbing the alarmingly high levels of pollution that have been plaguing the capital for weeks.

Air is essential for our daily survival – it is more important than food or water for us. As urbanisation processes, more and more people and industries are moving into the cities, which has an impact on urban air quality. Forecasts predict that the world population will increase from seven billion to almost ten million by 2050 of which almost seventy percent will live in cities. This clearly shows the increased importance to focus on air quality in urban areas. Actually, the air quality is already low in many areas: ninety-two percent of the world population lives in cities which fail to meet the World Health Organization's air quality guidelines.

Life on Earth has been shaped by billions of years of evolution. In fact, to be specific, it's estimated that life on Earth has existed for about 3.8 billion years. The age of the Earth is tagged at 4.543 billion years old. Thus life has, in some form or another, occupied Earth for approximately 83% of its history. What began with single-celled prokaryotic cells like bacteria, life on Earth is now teaming with more than 8.7 million different species.

Amid the Republican backlash against federal scientists who write rules governing everything from movie theater popcorn to offshore oil drilling, stories abound of overburdened businesses, heavy-handed civil servants and crushing paperwork. But another story, one involving a deadly household material, offers a lesson in what can go wrong when government experts are shackled, as currently envisioned under a sweeping regulatory reform bill gliding toward President Trump's desk. The GOP-backed legislation revives many of the rule-making hurdles that for years crippled the government's ability to respond to the asbestos-exposure epidemic, which has been blamed for tens of thousands of American deaths. "I don't think lawmakers are focusing on how extreme this legislation is," said Paul Billings, lobbyist for the American Lung Assn., which has joined several major public health groups imploring congressional leaders to apply the brakes. "It has been viewed as this abstraction that creates improvements in the regulatory process. This would undermine bedrock public health laws."