Quantifying the impact of clean air policy interventions for air quality management

Rising environmental concerns require the implementation of appropriate policies to manage environmental risk. One such risk arises from air pollution. As part of the process of air quality management it is important to understand how effective different policies are to determine whether a policy should be, for example, scrapped, changed, or rolled out across different sectors or regions. However, evaluating clean air policies is a challenge because of the complex physical and chemical processes in the atmosphere and other socioeconomic factors that may also be impacting pollution levels. This briefing document outlines a methodological approach that can be used to provide evidence of the success or otherwise of different clean air policies for different geographical areas and time periods.