Pollution Action Note – Data you need to know!

Pollution Action Note – Data you need to know!

Air pollution is the greatest environmental threat to public health globally and accounts for an estimated 7 million premature deaths every year. Air pollution and climate change are closely linked as all major pollutants have an impact on the climate and most share common sources with greenhouse gases. Improving our air quality will bring health, development, and environmental benefits.

The UNEP Pollution Action Note displays the global state of air pollution, major sources, the impact on human health, and national efforts to tackle this critical issue.

With every breath we take, we suck in tiny particles that can damage our lungs, hearts, and brains and cause a host of other health problems. The most dangerous of these particles, which can include anything from soot, soil dust, to sulfates, are fine particles 2.5 microns or less in diameter —shortened as PM2.5.

In 2021, in response to increases in quality and quantity of evidence of air pollution impacts, the WHO updated the PM2.5 annual mean air quality guideline to 5µg/m3, which represents clean air as few impacts have been observed below these levels. The update halves the previous 2005 guideline level of 10µg/m3. On the way to that level, the agency also sets a series of interim targets, air pollutant concentrations that serve as steppingstones. They are meant for areas where air pollution is high, so governments in those areas can develop policies to reduce air pollution that are achievable within realistic time frames.

Even though air pollution is a global problem, it disproportionately affects those living in developing nations and particularly the most vulnerable, such as women, children and the elderly.

UNEP’s Actions on Air Quality report provides a review of policy actions being undertaken by governments around the world to improve air quality. The report provides an assessment of actions in key sectors that contribute to air pollution including industrial emissions (incentives for cleaner production), transportation (vehicle emission and fuel quality standards), solid waste management (regulation of open burning of waste), household air pollution (incentives for clean energy use in residential cooking and heating) and agriculture (sustainable agricultural practices).

These sectoral measures are supported by enabling policy frameworks (including air quality standards) and air quality management capacities. The report, therefore, includes in its analysis: air quality management strategies, and air quality monitoring.