Air pollution is one of the biggest environmental threats to human health, alongside climate change. It is responsible for half a million premature deaths in the WHO European Region per year, primarily due to noncommunicable diseases, such as ischaemic heart disease, stroke, lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. On this International Day of Clean Air for blue skies, on 7 September, WHO/Europe recognizes the value of “the air we share” and the need for a concerted cooperative effort to tackle the persisting burden of air pollution that is driving climate change and damaging people’s health.
Air pollution can affect human health directly through exposure to pollutants such as particulate matter (PM), but it also has a climate impact, as some air pollutants are also short-lived climate pollutants. Combustion of fossil fuels and biomass to generate energy is the greatest contributor to air pollution and the source of emissions of greenhouse gases. Reduction or phase-out of fossil and biomass fuel combustion will reduce emissions of both greenhouse gases and health-relevant air pollutants. This will improve air quality for better health and enhance climate change mitigation efforts, which will further protect health in the long term.
Providing an annual assessment of the interacting impact of air pollution and climate change, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has published its 2022 Air Quality and Climate Bulletin, focusing this year on the impact that wildfire smoke has had on air quality by producing widespread increases in PM levels, which are harmful to health. So while air pollution is driving climate change, climate change is also causing deteriorating air quality.
“We are seeing an increase in the frequency, intensity and duration of heatwaves that are causing more wildfires, which are severely impacting air quality in almost all world regions,” explains Dr Joy Shumake-Guillemot of the WHO/WMO Joint Climate and Health Office. “The amplifying interaction between air pollution and climate change is imposing an additional ‘climate penalty’ on hundreds of millions of people globally.” This also refers to how climate change will exacerbate ground-level ozone pollution episodes that also have a detrimental impact on people’s health.
One year ago, the WHO Global Air Quality Guidelines (AQGs) were launched as a tool to provide robust evidence-informed guidance to protect public health from air pollution and to support climate action. “Almost all efforts to improve air quality can enhance climate change mitigation, and climate change mitigation efforts can, in turn, improve air quality for the benefit of public health,” notes Dr Dorota Jarosińska, WHO/Europe Programme Manager for Living and Working Environments. “By striving to achieve WHO AQG levels, countries will be both protecting health and mitigating global climate change.” By promoting environmental sustainability together with public health protection, we can make large steps towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
This year’s theme of “the air we share” focuses on the transboundary nature of air pollution, stressing the need for collective accountability and action. It also highlights the need for immediate and strategic international and regional cooperation for more efficient implementation of mitigation policies and actions to tackle air pollution.
The transboundary nature of air pollution is already part of WHO’s work with other United Nations bodies, such as the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), and Member States. The WHO–UNECE Joint Task Force on the Health Aspects of Air Pollution, established in 1998 within the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution to assess the health effects of such pollution and to provide supporting documentation, works to quantify how long-range transboundary air pollution affects human health. This well-established intersectoral platform helps define priorities to guide future monitoring and abatement strategies. It also advises on monitoring and modelling activities to improve the quality of assessments.
WHO Global Air Quality Guidelines
The updated AQGs provide recommendations on air quality guideline levels as well as interim targets for 6 pollutants: PM₂.₅ and PM₁₀, ozone (O₃), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), sulfur dioxide (SO₂) and carbon monoxide (CO).
Although the recommendations are not legally binding, they can be used as an evidence-informed reference tool to help decision-makers in setting legally binding standards and goals for air quality management at the international, national and local levels. Achieving the recommended AQG levels will deliver substantial health benefits globally; around 80% of deaths attributed to PM₂.₅ exposure in the world could be avoided if countries attain the annual AQG level for PM₂.₅.
Recognizing the role that the AQGs can play in tackling the global burden of both air pollution and climate change, and the need to reach out to policy-makers around the world, the executive summary of the Guidelines has now been translated into 14 languages, with Chinese, Romanian and Serbian versions being launched today.