Clearing the air?
UCC is gearing up for its upcoming annual climate conference as Cork continues to record large spikes in air pollution.
This will be the third UCC Climate Conference to take place in the college, and with recent readings suggesting that Cork’s air quality is amongst the worst in Europe, the timing couldn’t be better.
Speaking in the build up to the conference, Niamh Guiry, Chairperson, UCC Environmental Society, said that the climate crisis is the biggest threat humanity has ever experienced and that young people are becoming increasingly aware of the issue.
Ms Guiry said: “Our society strives to make sustainable living and climate action accessible to everyone, and the best way to do this is to encourage and facilitate discussion. I’m delighted that we have been able to create such a space for all members of the public to learn about our most pressing environmental problems and our potential solutions.”
UCC is the first university in the world to be awarded a Green Flag from the Foundation for Environmental Education, and in 2018 it also became the first university in Europe to be awarded a Gold Star from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education.
“Sustainability and climate action are key priorities for UCC, both in relation to what we do and how we do it. We are working hard to enable a more sustainable future for everyone,” said Ms Guiry.
The UCC Climate Conference 2020 will be held in the Aula Maxima on 1 February from 10.30am to 5pm and is free to attend.
Since June, experts in UCC and Cork City Council have been monitoring 12 newly installed PurpleAir devices which send air quality data to the PurpleAir website. On 18 January the PurpleAir website showed an Air Quality Index (AQI) rating of 332 in Cork, more than twice that of Dublin, which had a reading of 159 on the same day. Paris recorded an AQI rating of 131, while Amsterdam came in at 129, and Lisbon, which is of a similar size to Cork, recorded an AQI of just 24. However, experts including air specialist John Wenger have suggested that Cork’s air quality is no worse than in other urban areas in the country, and that the reason for the high readings is that Cork is now recording the data in more detail.