Australia is one of just seven countries in the world that met the World Health Organisation’s air quality guidelines in 2024.
2024 World Air Quality Report released yesterday, only 17 per cent of global cities met WHO air pollution guidelines.
Seven countries met the WHO annual average PM2.5 guideline of 5 µg/m3 and they were Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Estonia, Grenada, Iceland, and New Zealand.
In IQAir’s 2024 World Air Quality Report, 60 per cent of reporting cities in Australia met WHO air quality guidelines.
However, Central and South Asia were the worst performing regions globally, home to all four of the most polluted countries last year: Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and Tajikistan.
South Asia is of particular concern, with 29 of the 30 most polluted cities in India, Pakistan or Bangladesh.
In India 96 per cent of the population live with air quality seven times higher than WHO guidelines, according to the report.
The 7 th annual World Air Quality Report was compiled using data from more than 40,000 air quality monitoring stations across 8,954 locations in 138 countries, territories, and regions.
There has been notable progress in expanding air quality monitoring across various countries, regions, and territories over the past year. However, considerable gaps still exist in government-operated regulatory systems in many parts of the world.
Global CEO of IQAir, Frank Hammes, said air quality data saves lives but sadly only 21 per cent of the world population has access to real-time air quality information.
With outdoor air pollution monitoring making a difference, experts claim monitoring should also extend to indoor environments.
Research shows pollution levels in homes can be higher than outdoor levels, supporting calls for mandatory monitoring inside public buildings.
Director of the ARC Training Centre for Advanced Building Systems Against Airborne Infection Transmission (THRIVE), Lidia Morawska, said clean indoor air should be the norm.
Recognised as one of the world’s foremost authorities on the impact of airborne particles on human health and the environment – Lidia believes it should be mandatory for building occupants to get real-time information on the quality of the air they are breathing.