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IQAir report exhibits the very best and worst locations for air high quality in 2021

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Solely 222 cities of the 6,475 analyzed had common air high quality that met WHO’s normal. Three territories had been discovered to have met WHO pointers: the French territory of New Caledonia and the US territories of Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.

India, Pakistan and Bangladesh had been among the many international locations with the worst air air pollution, exceeding the rules by not less than 10 occasions.

The Scandinavian international locations, Australia, Canada, Japan and United Kingdom ranked among the many greatest international locations for air high quality, with common ranges that exceeded the rules by 1 to 2 occasions.

In the US, IQAir discovered air air pollution exceeded WHO pointers by 2 to three occasions in 2021.

“This report underscores the necessity for governments all over the world to assist cut back international air air pollution,” Glory Dolphin Hammes, CEO of IQAir North America, instructed CNN. “(High-quality particulate matter) kills far too many individuals yearly and governments must set extra stringent air high quality nationwide requirements and discover higher international insurance policies that promote higher air high quality.”

Above: IQAir analyzed common annual air high quality for greater than 6,000 cities and categorized them from greatest air high quality, in blue (Meets WHO PM2.5 guildline) to worst, in purple (Exceeds WHO PM2.5 guideline by over 10 occasions). An interactive map is offered from IQAir.

It is the primary main international air high quality report primarily based on WHO’s new annual air pollution guidelines, which had been updated in September 2021. The brand new pointers halved the suitable focus of positive particulate matter — or PM 2.5 — from 10 down to five micrograms per cubic meter.

PM 2.5 is the tiniest pollutant but additionally among the many most harmful. When inhaled, it travels deep into lung tissue the place it could possibly enter the bloodstream. It comes from sources just like the burning of fossil fuels, mud storms and wildfires, and has been linked to quite a few well being threats together with asthma, heart disease and different respiratory diseases.

Hundreds of thousands of individuals die every year from air high quality points. In 2016, round 4.2 million premature deaths had been related to positive particulate matter, based on WHO. If the 2021 pointers had been utilized that yr, WHO discovered there may have been almost 3.Three million fewer pollution-related deaths.

IQAir analyzed pollution-monitoring stations in 6,475 cities throughout 117 international locations, areas and territories.

Within the US, air air pollution spiked in 2021 in comparison with 2020. Out of the more than 2,400 US cities analyzed, Los Angeles air remained probably the most polluted, regardless of seeing a 6% lower in comparison with 2020. Atlanta and Minneapolis noticed significant increases in air pollution, the report confirmed.

“The (United States’) reliance on fossil fuels, growing severity of wildfires in addition to various enforcement of the Clear Air Act from administration to administration have all added to U.S. air air pollution,” the authors wrote.

Researchers say the principle sources of air pollution within the US had been fossil fuel-powered transportation, vitality manufacturing and wildfires, which wreak havoc on the nation’s most weak and marginalized communities.

“We’re closely depending on fossil fuels, particularly when it comes to transportation,” stated Hammes, who lives a number of miles from Los Angeles. “We will act well on this with zero emissions, however we’re nonetheless not doing it. And that is having a devastating influence on the air air pollution that we’re seeing in main cities.”

Local weather change-fueled wildfires performed a big position in lowering air high quality within the US in 2021. The authors pointed to quite a few fires that led to hazardous air air pollution — together with the Caldor and Dixie fires in California, in addition to the Bootleg Hearth in Oregon, which wafted smoke all the way to the East Coast in July.

China — which is among the many international locations with the worst air air pollution — confirmed improved air high quality in 2021. Greater than half of the Chinese language cities analyzed within the report noticed decrease ranges of air air pollution in comparison with the earlier yr. The capital metropolis of Beijing continued a five-year pattern of improved air high quality, based on the report, resulting from a policy-driven drawdown of polluting industries within the metropolis.

The report additionally discovered that the Amazon Rainforest, which had acted because the world’s main defender in opposition to the local weather disaster, emitted extra carbon dioxide than it absorbed final yr. Deforestation and wildfires have threatened the vital ecosystem, polluted the air and contributed to local weather change.

“That is all part of the formulation that may result in or is resulting in international warming.” Hammes stated.

The report additionally unveiled some inequalities: Monitoring stations stay scant in some creating international locations in Africa, South America and the Center East, leading to a dearth of air high quality information in these areas.

“When you do not have that information, you are actually at nighttime,” Hammes stated.

Hammes famous the African nation of Chad was included within the report for the primary time, resulting from an enchancment in its monitoring community. IQAir discovered the nation’s air air pollution was the second-highest on the planet final yr, behind Bangladesh.

Tarik Benmarhnia, a local weather change epidemiologist at Scripps Establishment of Oceanography who has studied the well being influence of wildfire smoke, additionally famous that relying solely on monitoring stations can result in blind spots in these studies.

“I feel it’s nice that they relied on completely different networks and never solely governmental sources,” Benmarhnia, who was not concerned on this report, instructed CNN. “Nevertheless, many areas wouldn’t have sufficient stations and various methods exist.”

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Local weather Change concluded in its 2021 report that, along with slowing the velocity of world warming, curbing the usage of fossil fuels would have the additional benefit of enhancing air high quality and public well being.

Hammes stated the IQAir report is much more purpose for the world to wean off fossil gasoline.

“We have the report, we are able to learn it, we are able to internalize it and actually commit ourselves to taking motion,” she stated. “There must be a significant transfer in the direction of renewable vitality. We have to take drastic motion with a view to reverse the tide of world warming; in any other case, the influence and the practice that we’re on (can be) irreversible.”

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