cnn
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Air pollution soared to unhealthy levels around the world in 2021, according to a new report.
The report from IQAir, a company that tracks global air quality, found that annual average air pollution in all countries (and in 97% of cities) exceeded the World Health Organization's air quality guidelines. , which were designed to help governments develop regulations to protect public health. .
Only 222 cities of the 6,475 analyzed had an average air quality that met the WHO standard. Three territories were found to meet WHO guidelines: the French territory of New Caledonia and the US territories of Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.
India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are among the countries with the worst air pollution, exceeding guidelines by at least 10 times.
The Scandinavian countries, Australia, Canada, Japan and the United Kingdom ranked among the best countries for air quality, with average levels exceeding guidelines by 1 to 2 times.
In the United States, IQAir found that air pollution exceeded WHO guidelines by 2 to 3 times in 2021.
“This report underscores the need for governments around the world to help reduce global air pollution,” Glory Dolphin Hammes, CEO of IQAir North America, told CNN. “(Fine particles) kill too many people every year and governments must set stricter national air quality standards and explore better foreign policies that promote better air quality.”
Above: IQAir analyzed the annual average air quality of more than 6,000 cities and ranked them from the best air quality, in blue (meets the WHO PM2.5 guideline) to the worst, in purple (exceeds the PM2 guideline .5 of the WHO by more than 10 times). A interactive map is available from IQAir.
It is the first major report on global air quality based on the WHO's new annual air pollution guidelines, which were updated in September 2021. The new guidelines halved the acceptable concentration of fine particles, or PM 2.5, 10 to 5 micrograms per cubic meter.
PM 2.5 is the smallest pollutant but also one of the most dangerous. When inhaled, it travels deep into the lung tissue, where it can enter the bloodstream. It comes from sources such as the burning of fossil fuels, dust storms and forest fires, and has been linked to a number of health threats, including asthma, heart disease and other respiratory illnesses.
Millions of people die each year from air quality problems. In 2016, around 4.2 million premature deaths were associated with fine particles, according to the WHO. If the 2021 guidelines had been applied that year, the WHO found there could have been almost 3.3 million fewer pollution-related deaths.
IQAir analyzed pollution monitoring stations in 6,475 cities in 117 countries, regions and territories.
In the US, air pollution skyrocketed in 2021 compared to 2020. Of the more than 2,400 US cities analyzed, Los Angeles' air remained the most polluted, despite seeing a 6% decrease compared with 2020. Atlanta and Minneapolis experienced significant increases in pollution. showed the report.
“(The United States') dependence on fossil fuels, the increasing severity of wildfires, and the varying implementation of the Clean Air Act from administration to administration have all contributed to air pollution in the United States,” the authors wrote. .
Researchers say the main sources of pollution in the United States were fossil fuel-powered transportation, energy production and wildfires, which wreak havoc on the country's most vulnerable and marginalized communities.
“We are very dependent on fossil fuels, especially in terms of transportation,” said Hammes, who lives a few miles from Los Angeles. “We can act smart on this with zero emissions, but we are not doing it yet. And this is having a devastating impact on the air pollution we are seeing in major cities.”
Wildfires driven by climate change played a major role in reducing air quality in the US in 2021. The authors pointed to a series of fires that caused dangerous air pollution, including the Caldor and Dixie fires in California, as well as the Bootleg Fire in Oregon, which sent smoke up the East Coast in July.
China, which is among the countries with the worst air pollution, showed better air quality in 2021. More than half of the Chinese cities analyzed in the report recorded lower levels of air pollution compared to the previous year. The capital city of Beijing continued a five-year trend of improving air quality, the report said, due to a policy-driven reduction of polluting industries in the city.
The report also found that the Amazon rainforest, which had acted as the world's main defender against the climate crisis, emitted more carbon dioxide than it absorbed last year. Deforestation and wildfires have threatened critical ecosystem, polluted the air and contributed to climate change.
“This is all part of the formula that will lead or is leading to global warming.” Hammes said.
The report also revealed some inequalities: Monitoring stations remain scarce in some developing countries in Africa, South America and the Middle East, resulting in a dearth of air quality data in those regions.
“When you don't have that data, you're really in the dark,” Hammes said.
Hammes noted that the African country of Chad was included in the report for the first time, due to an improvement in its monitoring network. IQAir found that the country's air pollution was the second highest in the world last year, behind Bangladesh.
Tarik Benmarhnia, a climate change epidemiologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography who has studied the health impact of wildfire smoke, also noted that relying solely on monitoring stations can create blind spots in these reports.
“I think it's fantastic that they relied on different networks and not just government sources,” Benmarhnia, who was not involved in this report, told CNN. “However, many regions do not have enough stations and alternative techniques exist.”
The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded in its 2021 report that, in addition to slowing the speed of global warming, curbing the use of fossil fuels would have the additional benefit of improving air quality and public health.
Hammes said the IQAir report is one more reason for the world to move away from fossil fuels.
“We have the report, we can read it, we can internalize it and really engage in taking action,” he said. “A big step towards renewable energies is necessary. We need to take drastic measures to reverse the tide of global warming; Otherwise, the impact and the train we are on (would be) irreversible.”
