Urban Sustainability

Millions of people in the Greater Metropolitan Region are affected by air pollution and escalating health, traffic congestion and other costs. Excessive use of cars; dirty industry; inadequate public transport and weak emission controls are the causes. While some gains have been made in previous years through the introduction of lead-free petrol, the growth in car traffic and increasing use of diesel vehicles is not only countering the gains but increasing the amount of toxic particulate pollutants in the air.

The NSW Government released Action for Air in March 1998, described as an "air quality blueprint". The Premier, Bob Carr said, "My Government has declared war on air pollution - this is the plan to make NSW the world leader in air quality management."

TEC welcomed the plan, but warned that effective implementation was the key. We promised to regularly review progress.

Click to download the Third Review of Action for Air 2007 [4.5MB]

The 2007 Speech to the Air Quality Forum can be viewed by clicking here [video]

Previous years reports and speeches can be viewed by clicking on the links below.

2001 Report [PDF 312Kb] 2001 speech to Air Quality Forum [PDF 20Kb]
2004 Report [744Kb] 2004 speech to Air Quality Forum [PDF 57Kb]

So far the results have been less than impressive.