The atmospheric methane burden is increasing rapidly, contrary to pathways compatible with the goals of the 2015 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Paris Agreement. Urgent action is required to bring methane back to a pathway more in line with the Paris goals. Emission reduction from “tractable” (easier to mitigate) anthropogenic sources such as the fossil fuel industries and la...

Methane is the 2nd most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide. Since the pre-industrial era, methane concentrations have more than doubled, and at present sources related to human activities are about 50% larger than natural ones. After a period of stagnation, methane concentrations are increasing again since the last decade, and by 2020, may reach levels that match the most ...

Background and aimsConcentrations of particulate matter (PM) regularly exceed levels recommended in the 2021 revision of the World Health Organization (WHO) air quality guidelines (AQGs) in many urban and rural areas of the world, and over 8 million people die prematurely every year from exposure to PM. In addition to affecting people living in rural areas, PM also has an impact on the growth, pro...

The purpose of this publication is to document the current knowledge of the damaging effects of tropospheric (ground-level) ozone pollution on food crops around the world and to discuss ways of mitigating these effects. The document makes the case for the inclusion of ozone in future crop yield predictions and recommends that management practices being developed to cope with climate change should ...

Modelled average percentage yield loss due to ground-level ozone pollution (per 1 degree by 1 degree grid cell) are presented for the crops maize (Zea mays), rice (Oryza sativa), soybean (Glycine max) and wheat (Triticum aestivum) for the period 2010-2012. Data are on a global scale, based on the distribution of production for each crop, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO) G...

Under climate warming, the trade-off between maintaining forest carbon sinks and meeting growing food demands presents a great challenge for land systems. Ground-level ozone, an oxidative air pollutant, exacerbates this issue by entering plant stomata and causing phytotoxic damage to crops. Previous studies have largely overlooked the physiological response of plant stomata (e.g., stomatal apertur...

Surface ozone (O3) pollution has adverse impacts on the yield of winter wheat. The North China Plain (NCP), one of the globally significant primary regions for winter wheat production, has been frequently plagued by severe O3 pollution in recent years. In this study, the effects of O3 pollution on winter wheat yield and economic impact were evaluated in the NCP during the 2015–2018 seasons using t...

Authors assess wheat yield losses occurring due to ozone pollution in India and its economic burden on producers, consumers, and the government. Applying an ozone flux–based risk assessment, authors show that ambient ozone levels caused a mean 14.18% reduction in wheat yields during 2008 to 2012. Furthermore, irrigated wheat was particularly sensitive to ozone-induced yield losses, indicating that...

The profound changes in global SO2 emissions over the last decades have affected atmospheric composition on a regional and global scale with large impact on air quality, atmospheric deposition and the radiative forcing of sulfate aerosols. Reproduction of historical atmospheric pollution levels based on global aerosol models and emission changes is crucial to prove that such models are able to pre...

Advances in manufacturing and trade have reshaped global nitrogen deposition patterns, yet their dynamics and drivers remain unclear. Here, authors compile a comprehensive global nitrogen deposition database spanning 1977–2021, aggregating 52,671 site-years of data from observation networks and published articles. This database show that global nitrogen deposition to land is 92.7 Tg N in 2020. Tot...