Hong Kong experienced cleaner air in 2020. However, air pollution remains a strong threat to our public health. Analysis conducted by Clean Air Network shows that main pollutants were down last year compared to 2019 but remained at a significantly higher level compared to World Health Organization standards. Whether or not Covid-19 had a role to play in the cleaner air, Hong Kong still requires much effort before our air is safe to breathe, especially at the roadside. And in ensuring this, the government definitely has a key role to play. Even during the pandemic, roadside air pollution remains a grave concern. While office workers might be working remotely, many urban areas in Hong Kon are still packed with vehicles, as many still need to regularly commute, and may work or even live by the roadside. In the past, there were policy interventions made by the government to control emissions, which helped. However, the reduction they brought is not strong enough to get us clean air. Therefore, we demand that the government step up its efforts. In the next 12 months or so, the government will announce its electric vehicle (EV) road map, Clean Air Plan and decarbonisation action plan . These are opportunities not to be missed. Advertised as Hong Kong’s first EV road map, there is a strong expectation that a deadline will be set to ban new sales of private vehicles with internal combustion engines . However, to maximise air quality gain, the government needs to make policies to accelerate the transition of public transport and commercial vehicles to having zero emissions. Currently, these vehicles contribute more than 90 per cent of roadside air pollution. There are high public expectations for the Clean Air Plan and the decarbonisation plan as well. In addition to tackling roadside air pollution, the government must devise plans to enhance data infrastructure, inhibit growth of regional ozone and address the policy gap in which the nitrogen oxides pollution emitted by ocean-going vessels is largely uncontrolled. There are actions that should be taken by the Hong Kong government now. The review of air quality objectives (AQOs) – a set of air pollution limit standards the government should comply with – was completed in 2018. Currently, we are still using the older version of AQOs that was updated in 2014, which means the government is legally allowing more emissions to be made by all kinds of pollution sources. This must be stopped and the AQOs should be updated immediately. Patrick Fung, CEO, Clean Air Network