Last year, as Paris briefly earned the ignominious title of world’s worst city for air quality, Mayor Anne Hidalgo pledged that she would start a global observatory to tackle urban pollution. Now, she has delivered. Last month, Hidalgo formally presented the Global Urban Air Pollution Observatory, or GUAPO for short, to the Paris city council. Already, Abidjan, London, Mexico and Rotterdam have committed to joining, while Athens, Montréal, New York City, Peking and Tokyo are in discussions to join. The new observatory will not be a scientific institute that collects data on air quality. Rather, it will serve as a clearinghouse for best practices around air quality in cities, including techniques for accurately measuring particulate matter, public policies that get rid of smog and more.

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