We have a rare opportunity to strengthen air pollution standards in Australia.

This year, state and territory environment ministers are reviewing outdated national standards for some of the worst air pollutants, including toxic pollutants from coal-fired power stations.

Will you make a submission now and have your say on what ends up in the air we breathe?

It’s so much more impactful if you write a submission in your own words. Tell them where you’re from and why you care about this issue.

Use our basic submission guide or our more detailed version to guide you. If you prefer, and for even more impact, you can email or post your submission directly. All details are in our submissions guides.

Health experts recommend stricter air pollution standards to protect communities. The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends a standard for sulfur dioxide that is 11 times stricter than the current Australian standard.

Exposure to sulfur dioxide can cause acute respiratory illness, lung and organ damage, and serious birth defects during pregnancy.

Stricter standards mean greater pressure on polluters to install pollution controls or to close.

Australia’s coal-fired power stations are the main source of both sulfur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen.

Coal-fired stations could reduce their emissions of these two pollutants by 85% or more by installing readily available pollution controls. But they won’t do this unless required.

We know that the big polluters are strongly opposed to stricter standards, so we’ll need to demonstrate that there’s much stronger support for them.

The environment ministers need to know that we have their back!