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Only seven countries passed the World Health Organization’s (WHO) air quality standards in 2024, data showed on Tuesday. Researchers warned that the fight against pollution will be harder in the future, as the United States has stopped its global monitoring initiative.

Chad and Bangladesh were the world’s most polluted countries in 2024, with average pollution levels more than 15 times the WHO guidelines, according to data from Swiss air quality monitoring company IQAir.

IQAir said only Australia, New Zealand, the Bahamas, Barbados, Grenada, Estonia and Iceland were able to meet the WHO’s air quality standards.

Reuters reported this in a report on Tuesday (March 11).

There is a significant data gap in countries in Asia and Africa, and many developing countries used air quality sensors installed in US embassies and consulates to track their pollution levels. However, the US State Department recently shut down the scheme due to budget constraints, and last week more than 17 years of data were removed from the US government’s air quality monitoring site.

This will be a major loss for countries in Africa, where these sensors were in place, because they were often their only publicly accessible, real-time air quality monitoring data, said Christy Chester-Schroeder, air quality science manager at IQAir.

Although Chad was dropped from the 2023 IQAir list, it was still the most polluted country in 2022. Chad’s average PM2.5 level was 91.8 micrograms per cubic meter (mg/m3), slightly higher than in 2022.

The WHO recommends that PM2.5 levels should not exceed 5 micrograms per cubic meter, but only 17% of cities in 2024 met this target.

India, which ranks fifth after Chad, Bangladesh, Pakistan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, had an average PM2.5 level of 50.6 micrograms per cubic meter, down 7% from last year. However, 12 of the country’s 20 most polluted cities were in India, with the heavily industrialised city of Byrnehat in India’s northeast topping the list with an average PM2.5 of 128 micrograms per cubic meter.

This air quality situation is getting worse as climate change is playing a major role in increasing pollution levels. Intense and prolonged forest fires in parts of Southeast Asia and South America have increased pollution levels.

Christa Hasenkopf, director of the Clean Air Program at the University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute (EPIC), said the closure of the U.S. program would leave at least 34 countries without reliable pollution data.

The initiative has improved air quality in the cities where it was established, raised the standard of living and even reduced risk allowances for U.S. diplomats, making it profitable in itself, she said.

She added that it is a major blow to global air quality efforts.

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