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\nA view of heavy smog in southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality<\/p>\n
Wildfires are releasing a “witches’ brew” of pollutants that can end up wrecking air quality a continent away from the blaze, the UN’s weather and climate agency has said.<\/p>\n
The World Meteorological Organization said the quality of the air people breathe was interlinked with climate change, and the two issues needed to be tackled together.<\/p>\n
Wildfires in the Amazon, Canada and Siberia have brought home how air quality can be impacted on a vast scale, the WMO said in its fifth annual Air Quality and Climate Bulletin.<\/p>\n
“Climate impacts and air pollution respect no national borders – as exemplified by intense heat and drought which fuels wildfires, worsening air quality for millions of people,” said WMO deputy secretary-general Ko Barrett.<\/p>\n
The bulletin looked at the interplay between air quality and the climate, highlighting the role of tiny particles called aerosols in wildfires, winter fog, shipping emissions and urban pollution.<\/p>\n
Particles with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometres (PM 2.5) are considered particularly harmful since they can penetrate deep into the lungs or cardiovascular system.<\/p>\n
\nA view of heavy smog in southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality<\/p>\n
Wildfires in 2024 led to above-average PM 2.5 levels in Canada, Siberia and central Africa, the WMO said. The biggest PM 2.5 surge, however, was in the Amazon basin.<\/p>\n
“The wildfire season has the tendency to be stronger and longer every year as a result of climate change,” said WMO scientific officer Lorenzo Labrador, who coordinated the bulletin.<\/p>\n
Wildfires in Canada have ended up causing air pollution in Europe.<\/p>\n
“We had that last year and this year as well. So you have a degradation in air quality across continents when the meteorological conditions are right,” Mr Labrador told a press conference.<\/p>\n
“What we have from these fires is essentially a witches’ brew of components that pollute the air.”<\/p>\n
The World Health Organization estimates that air pollution causes more than 4.5 million premature deaths each year.<\/p>\n
The WMO called for improved monitoring and better policies to safeguard human and environmental health – and reduce agricultural and economic losses.<\/p>\n
The bulletin highlighted pollution hotspots in northern India.<\/p>\n
It said the Indo-Gangetic Plain, home to more than 900 million people, had seen a marked rise in air pollution and winter fog episodes, which are growing in frequency and duration due to pollution, notably from agricultural biomass burning.<\/p>\n
“Persistence of fog is no longer a simple, seasonal weather event – it is a symptom of escalating human impact on the environment,” it said.<\/p>\n