{"id":617251,"date":"2026-09-07T14:06:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T14:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/617251\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T14:06:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T14:06:11","slug":"heatwaves-and-wildfires-are-setting-back-air-quality-improvements-un-finds-air-pollution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/617251\/","title":{"rendered":"Heatwaves and wildfires are setting back air quality improvements, UN finds | Air pollution"},"content":{"rendered":"

Big increases in wildfires and heatwaves supercharged by the climate crisis are hindering improvements to air quality around the world, UN experts have said.<\/p>\n

Regions that had recorded a fall in pollution emitted by cars and industrial sites are facing new threats to air quality because of exposure to smoke from wildfires, according to a new report, while rising temperatures caused by intense heatwaves are causing a surge in ground-level ozone.<\/p>\n

In turn, the pollution generated by these climate-linked events<\/a> is itself contributing to climate breakdown, creating a feedback loop that risks dragging the world deeper into environmental catastrophe.<\/p>\n

\u201cAir quality and climate cannot be treated as separate subjects; they are deeply intertwined and have to be treated together,\u201d said Lorenzo Labrador, a scientific officer of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), which issued the report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Thick haze from expanding wildfires engulfs Palembang in South Sumatra. Photograph: Mast Irham\/EPA<\/p>\n

The WMO publishes its air quality and climate bulletin annually, to coincide with the UN\u2019s international day for clean air. Among its key findings was that extreme wildfires are increasing, leading to serious health consequences because of the toxicity of the smoke they are emitting.<\/p>\n

This trend, \u201cdriven by a feedback loop between climate change and fire-conducive weather conditions\u201d, was leading to an \u201curgent and growing public health threat\u201d. As well as carrying high concentrations of fine particulate matter, smoke from wildfires causes oxidative stress in people\u2019s bodies.<\/p>\n

\u201cSystematic reviews and experimental studies consistently link wildfire smoke exposure to increased asthma attacks, hospitalisations for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), spiked respiratory medication use, as well as impacts on mental health and birth outcomes,\u201d the report said. According to one study cited, a tripling of wildfires since the 1990s had contributed to almost 100,000 deaths a year between 2010 and 2018.<\/p>\n

The report also raises the alarm about ground-level ozone pollution, which is exacerbated by the kinds of intense and prolonged heatwaves that have affected Europe over this past summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cOzone is a very powerful oxidant,\u201d Labradorsaid. \u201cSo once it gets to the lung, it essentially oxidises lung tissue and causes inflammation and circulatory problems, and eventually heart problems.\u201d In heavily polluted regions, roughly one in five deaths from COPD is now attributed to long-term exposure to ozone, the report said.<\/p>\n

The Ross fire in Palo Pinto, Texas is yet to be fully extinguished after it started late last month. Photograph: El\u00edas Valverde II\/The Dallas Morning News\/AP<\/p>\n

Every year the WMO includes in the report anomalies in the concentrations of fine particulate matter, referred to as PM2.5. These microscopic particles and droplets, smaller than 2.5\u00b5m suspended in the air, are a severe health hazard because they can penetrate deep into people\u2019s lungs and bloodstream. But they also pose a significant risk to the climate.<\/p>\n

PM2.5 is emitted by fossil fuel-driven industrial activities, farming, domestic heating and transport, as well as by wildfires and dust storms. The combination of particulates and air is called aerosol. Once airborne, atmospheric aerosol can affect the Earth\u2019s climate by modifying the properties, lifetime and brightness of clouds, affecting how they impact the planet\u2019s climate, the report explains.<\/p>\n

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Eventually, those particles will settle back to earth, and there they also have an impact on the climate. One example is the deposition of black carbon \u2013 or soot \u2013 on snow and ice. When such particles deposit on ice they darken the surfaces and stop it reflecting light back into space, further accelerating global heating.<\/p>\n

The report explains that this process leads to a positive feedback loop: \u201cIncreasing aridity and land-use change are expected to enhance aerosol emissions, creating a powerful climate feedback loop where a warming climate increases fires and dust emissions, which enhances deposition on snow and ice surfaces, which in turn accelerates melt, thereby ultimately reinforcing warming.\u201d<\/p>\n

The WMO\u2019s message was that climate and air quality must be tackled together, Labrador emphasised. \u201cWhich is not terribly hard because if you abate emissions of greenhouse gases, you are at the same time reducing emissions of air quality degrading substances,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that leads me to the best solution that there is, which is a general abatement of global greenhouse gas emissions and fossil fuel burning.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Big increases in wildfires and heatwaves supercharged by the climate crisis are hindering improvements to air quality around…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":617252,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[246,61,60,82],"class_list":["post-617251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=617251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/617252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}