"A new report shows air pollution threatens the majority of the world’s population, while information gaps increase the risks."
"A new report on global air pollution shows that the majority of the world’s population breathes unhealthy air, and climate change is making the problem worse.
The report was published Tuesday by IQAir, a Swiss air monitor and purifier company that posts real-time air quality data aggregated from sensors around the world. It shows that in 2025, most of the world’s cities were plagued with unhealthy levels of air pollution, and that climate-driven wildfires and dust storms as well as the continued burning of fossil fuels are driving toxic air across borders and worsening the problem.
Supercharged wildfires in California, Canada and South Korea and dust storms from China to Texas last year made it harder for millions to breathe. In an era of larger and more severe weather events, living far from the pollution’s origin is no protection.
Only 14 percent of the more than 9,000 cities included in the report met the World Health Organization’s target level for toxic particulate matter pollution. Canadian wildfires, intensified by climate change, led to deteriorating air quality in regions previously seeing improvements."
Kiley Bense and Keerti Gopal report for Inside Climate News March 24, 2026.
