Global demand for transport (for both passenger and freight) is growing rapidly, and it is predicted to triple between 2019 and 2050 (OECD 2019). The global vehicle fleet is projected to more than double from 1.2 billion to 2.5 billion between 2015 and 2050, with most of the growth occurring in Low- and  Middle-Income Countries (World Bank 2017).Despite progress made on fuel efficiency and el...

Crop Residue Burning (CRB) or open burning of vegetation to prepare land for resowing remains a persistent issue globally. This practice is especially prevalent among farmers growing paddy, wheat, sugarcane, and maize (FAOSTAT, 2023).  Between 2003 and 2020, an average of 81 million hectares (Hall et al., 2024) of cropland area was burned annually. Deeply rooted in agricultural traditions, CR...

Respiratory diseases are a leading cause of illness and death among children around the world, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Nearly 500,000 children under 5 years of age die every year from pneumonia, mostly in LMICs. Air pollution is a major risk factor for childhood respiratory diseases. Common sources of air pollution are household fuel burning (e.g., for cookstoves), ...

The evaluation and characterisation of data obtained from measurements made within WMO/GAW Programme involve a number of statistical parameters and specific terms to characterise data quality. At present, several of these terms (e.g. precision) are frequently used with different meaning by different people. Efforts for standardization have been made in the past, involving contributions from a numb...

Pollution is one of the most significant barriers to sustainable development globally, resulting in widespread social, economic and environmental harms, with disproportionate impacts in low- and middle-income countries and among already vulnerable and marginalized populations. Yet action to address pollution remains inadequate and many countries do not have effective strategies or policies to addr...

Pollution of air, water and soil poses serious threats to health and human rights and undermines efforts towards sustainable development. Air pollution is the second largest risk factor for death, accounting for 8.1 million deaths globally in 2021. Most strikingly, the vast majority of these deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries, highlighting the dramatic inequalities in environmental h...

Investment cases in health estimate the economic burden of a disease or risk factor, and measure the costs and benefits of scaling-up interventions to reduce this burden. Alongside their economic component, investment cases provide an assessment of the policy landscape on health in a country, including policy gaps/windows, financing opportunities, and priority actions.This Methods Note, funded by ...

Embedding ambient air quality standards (AAQS) in legislation is an important foundation for effective national air quality governance. Legislation can establish institutional responsibility for air quality standards, set mechanisms for accountability, public participation and enforcement, and institutionalize processes for setting and updating robust air quality standards as knowledge and technol...

A limited number of African governments (national, sub-national, city) actively monitor air quality, and many countries do not yet have national air quality standards. Increasingly,  monitoring initiatives by governments and projects led by researchers and civil society are expanding the availability of air quality data across the continent. There is also growing availability of modelled esti...

Over the years, air pollution has become a major global issue in terms of public health and environmental sustainability. In Togo, and particularly in the capital, Lomé, the deterioration in air quality is a cause for growing concern, due to its harmful effects on human health, ecosystems and socio-economic development.In light of this, it is essential to raise awareness, inform and engage all sta...