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Air pollution is on the rise, but not everywhere, says UN weather agency
As billions of people continue to breathe polluted air that causes more than 4.5 million premature deaths every year, UN climate experts on Friday highlighted how damaging microscopic smoke particles from wildfires play their part, travelling half-way across the world.
“Air quality respects no boundaries,” said Lorenzo Labrador, Scientific Officer at the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). “The smoke and the pollution that issues from the wildfires in this record-breaking season in the Iberian peninsula has been detected over Western Europe already [and]…can travel basically throughout the rest of the European continent.”
Presenting the latest WMO Air Quality and Climate Bulletin which crunches data from different global datasets, Mr. Labrador announced a continuing pattern of pollution “degradation” worldwide.
He pointed to a map of the world in 2024 showing telltale fine particle markers known as “PM 2.5” from wildfires concentrated in deep red blotches in the Chile, Brazil and Ecuador, along with Canada, central Africa and Siberia. The data confirms the trend for deteriorating global air quality already noted in previous years.
“We know that the wildfire season has the tendency to be stronger and longer every year, as a result of climate change,” Mr. Labrador explained.
China, Europe provide hope
In more positive news, the WMO scientist underscored a reduction in emissions in parts of the world, “particularly eastern China and Europe, year on year”.
“When we see that countries or regions or cities are taking measures to fight against bad air quality, it works,” said Paolo Laj, Chief of Global Atmosphere at WMO.
A good example is eastern China, in cities such as Shanghai where progress has been made in improving air quality by opening more parks, planting more trees. And although there is still heavy vehicle traffic, many of them are electric, WMO spokesperson Clare Nullis noted.
Despite these successes, very few cities worldwide have air quality levels below those recommended by the UN World Health Organization (WHO), stressed WMO’s Mr Laj. “This means that, despite recent improvements, air quality remains a significant public health concern.”
He explained that although main pollutants such as sulphur dioxide (SO₂) and nitrogen oxide (NOₓ) are decreasing as emission controls kick in, ground-level ozone levels – the main ingredient of smog - have not declined. “This is partly a consequence of global warming, as ozone is a secondary pollutant formed through chemical reactions in the atmosphere that require sunlight,” Mr. Laj continued.
Covering wildfires, winter fog, shipping emissions and pollution in urban spaces, the WMO air quality bulletin highlights the close connection between air quality and climate change.
“Climate change and air quality cannot be addressed in isolation. They go hand-in-hand and must be tackled together in order to protect the health of our planet, our communities and our economies,” said WMO Deputy Secretary-General Ko Barrett.
The UN is leading efforts to tackle household air pollution which is one of the world’s greatest public health threats and particularly harmful for children.
“The good news is that cleaner cooking technology is plentiful, relatively inexpensive, and already helping to save lives,” insisted Martina Otto, Head of Secretariat of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition hosted by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). “The challenge now is to get this technology into the hands of more people.”
Ends
STORY: Global air pollution update - WMO
TRT: 2’46”
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH/ NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 5 SEPTEMBER 2025 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
Speakers:
- Lorenzo Labrador, WMO Scientific Officer
- Paolo Laj – Chief of Global Atmosphere – WMO
SHOTLIST
- Exterior wide shot: Palais des Nations, flag alley.
- Wide, UN Geneva Press room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Lorenzo Labrador, WMO Scientific Officer: “The problem is that, as I said before, air quality respects no boundaries. So, the smoke and the pollution that issues from the wildfires in this record-breaking season in the Iberian peninsula has been detected over Western Europe already, so the effects are not only limited to the Iberian peninsula, but can travel basically throughout the rest of the European continent.”
- Wide, UN Geneva Press room podium speakers.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Lorenzo Labrador, WMO Scientific Officer: “We're seeing a pattern with respect to degradation of air quality insofar as it concerned PM 2.5 and we also see that there is a reduction in emissions in certain parts of the world, particularly eastern China and Europe, year on year.”
- Wide, UN Geneva Press room podium speakers.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Lorenzo Labrador, WMO Scientific Officer: “You have very strong PM sources as a result of wildfires both in the Amazon basin, in Canada and Siberia; we have seen that in previous years as well. We know that the wildfire season has the tendency to be stronger and longer every year, as a result of climate change. So, that is an issue and that is part of the reason why we see those patterns regarding wildfires and degradation of air quality in wildfires.”
- Medium-wide, UN Geneva Press room podium speakers.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Lorenzo Labrador, WMO Scientific Officer: “The current wildfire season in the Iberian peninsula has been one for the records. For instance, the Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Services has highlighted that this has been in terms of cumulative emissions of CO2 the strongest season that has happened since they started taking records back in 2003; so the strongest season in 20 years.”
- Medium-wide, UN Geneva Press room podium speakers.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Paolo Laj, Chief of Global Atmosphere, WMO: “When we see that countries or regions or cities are taking measures to fight against bad air quality, it works. And we see that in many areas an improvement of the air quality.”
- Medium, journalist.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Lorenzo Labrador, WMO Scientific Officer: “We have a marked reduction - improvement - in air quality as a result of a reduction in pollutants in certain fuels, but on the flipside we also see that the reduction in the sulphates aerosols - which is a consequence of the reduction in sulphur emissions from these fuels - also unmasks the real warming of greenhouse gases.”
- Medium, journalist.
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As world’s water reserves change, countries must prepare for a new reality: WMO
New data showing that rivers were at their lowest level for decades last year provides further evidence that the climate crisis is real and countries must act immediately to protect themselves from the increasing threat to communities and livelihoods, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday.
The key findings from WMO’s State of Global Water Resources 2025 report covering the hydrological cycle and extreme events in the five-year period to last year:
- 2025 was one of driest years for river discharge in 35 years
- Past seven years have seen abnorfmal river flows
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Highlighting the long-term decline in the Earth’s freshwater storage and glacier melt, WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo explained that the planet’s water reserves used to act as a planetary “savings account” that absorbed the occasional dry season, avoiding a water crisis. “One of the central stories of the 2025 report is what is happening to that savings account? And the simple answer is that we are depleting it,” she told journalists in Geneva.
Groundwater reserves are equally stretched and have been in decline since 2014, WMO’s report states, with nearly two-thirds of monitored wells worldwide showing levels lower than the historical norm and indicating a shift “further toward deficit…not recovery”.
“At the same time, we are seeing more water-related disasters,” Ms. Saulo said, while also stressing that the currently strengthening El Niño “will increase the risk of drought in some areas, and flooding in others”.
Glaciers disappearing
In 2025, for the fourth consecutive year, every major glaciated region on Earth lost ice mass, leading to short-term hazards including floods and long-term water insecurity, according to WMO.
Responding to a question about whether the changing global water cycle might have contributed to the deadly Nepal-China flooding disaster, Ms. Saulo explained that melting ice and rock was just one factor in the chain of events that ultimately sent a massive and deadly wall of water and debris downstream on 26 August, killing at least 1,367 people.
“You asked if it could happen again? Absolutely; the problem in this region is that there’s 63,700 glaciers at the last count,” she told a Press Conference in Geneva. “Even if you’re looking with remote sensing with satellites at these glaciers, you might see some faults, you might see some slight shifting, that does not mean necessarily catastrophic collapse. So, in order to plan for this, it’s very, very difficult. But the international community is looking very hard at ways in which we can bring people together to solve some of these monitoring issues.”
Data indicates that glaciers shrank between 2023 and 2025 with cumulative losses of 1,400 gigatonnes of water – or about one third of annual fresh water needs.
Every major glacier region on Earth lost ice for the fourth consecutive year.
“All 19 glacier regions around the globe lost ice; in Central Asia, Iceland, the Russian Arctic and western Canada and the United States, it was among the three worst years on record,” said Wayne Jenkinson, WMO’s Director of Hydrology and Cryosphere.
Some regions with smaller glaciers such as Central Europe, the Caucasus, the western Canada and the United States may already have reached “peak water”, Mr. Jenkinson warned.
“After this point, the glacier gives less meltwater each year simply because there is less ice left to melt. That matters for every community downstream that relies on water during hot, dry summers,” he explained.
Narelle van der Wel, WMO’s Head of Cryosphere Monitoring, Predictions and Services, stressed that while some further glacier loss is unavoidable, the eventual scale of the decline is not predetermined.
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Preparing for moving baselines
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Mr. Jenkinson said governments need to prepare for “moving baselines” as historical patterns become less reliable.
“The situation 30 years ago is not where we are today,” he said. Countries, he added, need to prepare “for those changes that have really already arrived”.
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