Mapping Air Inequality: Global Gaps in National Frameworks and Unenforced Standards for Ambient Air
By Sulaiman Mathew-Wilson, Health Effects Institute Fellow at OpenAQ
Exposure to air pollution is inextricably linked to numerous poor health outcomes, disproportionately burdening low-income communities where the air tends to be more polluted. In these areas, where populations already experience poor health conditions, which are compounded by air pollution, there are few to no legal remedies for addressing the problem, and the communities have less power and fewer resources to advocate for their right to breathe clean air.
Government regulations are critical to address air pollution, specifically, three interrelated programs:
- Legal frameworks (legislation, regulations, or other policies at the national or smaller administrative level) requiring air quality standards, e.g., “Clean Air Act” air quality guidelines set by law [1];
- Broad monitoring of air quality, including a legal requirement to do so, e.g., setting up air monitoring equipment and open data reporting;
- Enforcement if monitoring shows air quality standards are being violated, e.g., fines or injunctions if an industry or entity is releasing pollutants above permitted levels.
In this article, we focus specifically on legislation that targets air quality and health, as it pertains to the first need (legal frameworks) and discuss the third need (enforcement). The second need (monitoring and data sharing) is covered in OpenAQ’s 2024 Open Air Quality Data: The Global Landscape report, which reviews the status of national government air quality monitoring and data sharing around the world and explains how data transparency results in more innovative and durable solutions to the air pollution crisis.
We hypothesize that weak enforcement of air quality standards or a complete lack of air quality guidelines and legal frameworks exacerbate environmental injustice globally, but especially in low- and lower-middle-income countries. This is supported by trends that we found: some countries have no legal frameworks governing air pollution, while others have weakly enforced standards and legislation that have not been updated in decades. We also found robust frameworks that establish ambient air quality standards, define monitoring requirements, outline enforcement mechanisms, and support plans that reduce emissions and improve overall air quality. A huge indicator of whether or not a country has enforceable legal frameworks has to do with its income level.
Out of all countries examined, 16% lack laws governing ambient air quality. Examining low- and lower-middle-income economies specifically, that percentage jumps to 29% (Figure 1). [2] Meanwhile, only 7% of upper-middle and high-income countries lack legal frameworks concerning air pollution. This clear disparity and absence of foundational frameworks in less economically developed countries leaves a significant portion of the world’s most vulnerable populations largely unprotected from polluted air. Furthermore, with there being a clear path forward for a large percentage of higher-income countries to improve their air quality, lower-income countries do not possess this same ability, which worsens health disparities and widens global gaps.
Research Methods
Are there existing standards, provisions in the law to establish standards, or provisions in the law to establish/require air quality monitoring? Through an investigation into regulatory frameworks, institutional responsibilities, and air quality standards, we found a clear picture of ambient air quality at national and international levels. This research process involved looking into the most up-to-date national legislation and reading legislative documents that govern air pollution nationally. We reviewed two reports from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to get an initial scope of each country’s existing air quality regulations: Regulating Air Quality: the First Global Assessment of Air Pollution Legislation (2021) and the Air Policy documents (2015) which exist for each country on the UNEP website. [4] We also identified some legislation predating these UNEP reports in select countries. We utilized environmental law databases like ECOLEX (https://www.ecolex.org/), which is maintained by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), UNEP, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). [5] We also validated information we found through personal consultations and other secondary sources such as journals from the Bulletin of the World Health Organization and the Sustainable Development Policy Institute. Once we exhausted this research process, we listed countries as having or not having a legal framework that governs ambient air quality standards and/or air quality monitoring requirements.
Air Inequality between Countries with Different Income Levels: Analysis by Continent
Africa is home to 54 countries, 45 (83%) of which are low- and lower-middle-income according to the World Bank. High levels of air pollution are a major problem throughout the continent. In Central and Western Africa specifically, average particulate pollution levels are 4.2 times the World Health Organization (WHO) guideline, amounting to a total of 1 billion years of life lost in these regions alone (AQLI, 2023). Across Africa, major disparities exist even between low-income and lower-middle-income countries. While half (50%) of the low-income African countries possess guidelines regulating ambient air quality, nearly three-quarters (74%) of lower-middle-income African countries have set national standards (Figure 2).
In Central Africa, only 44%, 4 out of 9 countries, have laws governing ambient air quality. Eleven out of 16 countries in Western Africa (69%) have guidelines regulating ambient air quality, while in Eastern Africa, standards could be found in 72% of the 18 countries that make up the region. Northern and Southern Africa have higher rates, with 5 out of 6 (83%) countries in Northern Africa and 4 out of 5 (80%) countries in Southern Africa having regulations that speak to having air quality standards or provisions in the law to establish standards or air quality monitoring.
Many low-income countries in Africa, which experience the highest concentrations of an array of different air pollutants, lack comprehensive air quality regulations and/or standards.
In Asia, despite nearly half (44%) of the countries categorized as low- or lower-middle-income, 92% of the countries on the continent have national ambient air quality regulations and/or standards (Figure 3). Within Oceania, another region that exhibits economic diversity, 64% of countries possess ambient air quality regulations and/or standards (Figure 4).
Among countries in the Caribbean as well as North and Central America, evidence of the presence of air quality regulations exists in 79% of them, with no apparent correlation between income level and standards (Figure 5). In South America, a continent which only has one country categorized as low- or lower-middle-income by the World Bank, the presence of ambient air quality regulations were found in all of the countries (Figure 6).
In Europe, a continent that consists of predominantly high-income countries and where no country is listed as being below upper-middle-income, all 44 countries have a framework that governs air quality (Figure 7). All European Union (EU) countries, as well as many European countries that are not in the EU, closely align themselves with EU air quality standards and practices. Directive 2008/50/EC on Ambient Air Quality and Cleaner Air has been in place for over a decade, and Directive 2024/2881, which is even stronger, is set to go into place on December 12, 2026. This unified commitment to improving air quality serves as a clear example of how a region has collectively come together to improve environmental conditions and public health outcomes through comprehensive legal frameworks and monitoring requirements.
The European standard sets a strong regulatory precedent on a continent where every country is upper-middle or high-income. Low- and lower-middle-income countries, which bear a disproportionate burden of air pollution, deserve investment and support to implement similar regulatory frameworks to protect the health of their citizens. While the presence of standards alone does not guarantee an improvement in air quality, such standards are an essential component of national policy actions to reduce air pollution and improve health. Given the current landscape, where 13 out of 26 low-income countries globally (11 of which are in Africa) lack foundational air quality regulations, a disparity exists that must be urgently addressed. A profound inequity in legislative frameworks and the capacity to address air pollution exists globally, exacerbating the poor health outcomes of already vulnerable populations and further perpetuating cycles of inequality.
Standards Versus Enforcement
Enacting guidelines and setting frameworks are key for improving air quality and health outcomes, but standards alone do not mean that they are being followed or that air quality is improving. Without proper enforcement, standards are meaningless. For example, looking into the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) (spanning 22 countries from North Africa, the Middle East, and parts of South and Southwest Asia, and encapsulating a diverse range of cultural, political, and economic landscapes), 16 out of 22 countries (73%) have standards governing air quality, yet many of these countries experience the highest concentrations of air pollution. Despite the presence of standards in many of these countries, from 2016 to 2019, population-weighted exposure to PM2.5 remained steady with no significant reduction. This indicates inadequate air quality management strategies and regulatory enforcement.
Even among some of the non-EU European countries, while standards exist, enforcement and tangible air pollution reduction are weak. Bosnia and Herzegovina is a prime example. According to 2019 WHO statistics, Bosnia and Herzegovina has the highest European mortality rate attributed to air pollution. Despite having a legal framework for air quality largely in place, the implementation and enforcement of national action plans remain frail.
Although each regulation is unique, we discovered some trends. In many countries, the law requires monitoring and the self-reporting of data by the polluting entity as part of the permitting process. In some countries, air quality monitoring and standards are embedded in general environmental laws (e.g., Egypt’s Law № 4 of 1994 on Environment, the Gambia’s National Environment Management Act of 1994), while in others a standalone law for ambient air quality exists (e.g., the United States’ Clean Air Act of 1970, Law on Protection of Ambient Air Quality № 162/2014 in Albania, Law of Georgia on Ambient Air Protection [№ 2116-IIS of 1999]). In other countries, no national-level air quality standard or regulation exists, but major administrative levels (cities or provinces) have promulgated their own air quality regulations (e.g., Buenos Aires, Argentina and Bogotá, Colombia).
Conclusions and Recommendations
The current global landscape of air quality regulation reveals a stark inequity in legislative frameworks and the capacity to address air pollution, which has severe implications for the health and livelihoods of already vulnerable populations. In general, higher-income countries tend to have well-established and enforced air quality regulations and provisions for setting standards and monitoring systems. Simultaneously, low-income countries all over the world tend to struggle when it comes to putting frameworks into place and enforcing them. Even among low-income countries with frameworks, legislative revisions are far less frequent. Moreover, a recurring issue, particularly in lower-income countries, is the absence of national air quality monitoring networks or publicly available data, which hinders the ability to assess and manage air pollution effectively (see 2024 Open Air Quality Data: The Global Landscape).
There are bright spots. Asia demonstrates that a high proportion of countries, even at lower-income levels, can have frameworks governing national ambient air quality standards. However, expecting all low- and lower-middle-income countries to be able to implement strong frameworks and enforcement is difficult and unrealistic without significant external investment and support. While the goal for low-income countries is self-sufficiency, many face inherent economic disadvantages due to structural issues stemming from colonial legacies and historical oppression. Investments specifically focused on creating and updating air quality monitoring and infrastructure are crucial to combat global air inequality. Moreover, phasing out fossil fuels through an increased investment in clean energy would play a transformative role in closing the gap in air quality outcomes between low- and high-income nations. By supporting the implementation of sustainable systems like these, meaningful steps toward environmental equity can be taken globally.
Footnotes
[1] Air quality standards are legally defined limits on the concentration of harmful pollutants in the air, designed to protect both public health and the environment. These limits apply to key pollutants, such as fine particulate matter (PM2.5), ground-level ozone (O₃), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), carbon monoxide (CO), sulfur dioxide (SO₂), and lead. Many countries consider other types of air pollutants as well. Many laws and directives that touch on climate change, greenhouse gases, and emissions inventories are closely related to air quality laws; however, these were not included in this research. We focused on air quality regulations that directly address air quality, health, and the environment.
[2] Ethiopia, although unclassified, is included in the “lower middle-income economies” in this article. https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/ethiopia/overview
[3] For the purposes of this research, we included all 193 United Nations member states and 5 dependencies or disputed territories with populations greater than one million, totalling N = 198. For brevity, these are referred to as “countries” throughout the text.
[4] Air policy documents for each country can be found at the following link when “Air quality policies” and the name of the desired country is searched. https://www.unep.org/resources/filter/keywords=Air+quality+policies/sort_by=publication_date/sort_order=desc/page=0
[5] Many of the references in ECOLEX point to FAOLEX, which is the database maintained by FAO. https://www.fao.org/faolex/country-profiles/en/
Additional Links
Air Quality Standards Database.World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/tools/air-quality-standards
Air Quality, Energy and Health Science and Policy Summaries: Air quality legislation and implications for health (2025). World Health Organization. https://iris.who.int/bitstream/handle/10665/381919/B09436-eng.pdf?sequence=1
References
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Air pollution attributable mortality rate (Per 100 000 population, age-standardized), household and ambient, SDG indicator 3.9.1. (n.d.). Retrieved July 17, 2025, from https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/indicators/indicator-details/GHO/ambient-and-household-air-pollution-attributable-death-rate-(per-100-000-population-age-standardized)
Central and West Africa Fact Sheet. (2023). The University of Chicago Air Quality Life Index. https://aqli.epic.uchicago.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Central-and-West-Africa-FactSheet-2023_Final.pdf
Directive (EU) 2024/2881 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2024 on Ambient Air Quality and Cleaner Air for Europe (Recast), EP, CONSIL (2024). http://data.europa.eu/eli/dir/2024/2881/oj/eng
National Ambient Air Quality Standards | Environmental Protection Division. (n.d.). https://epd.georgia.gov/air-protection-branch/air-branch-programs/planning-and-support-program/national-ambient-air-quality
Rosales, C M F, Hagerbaumer, C, Sawant, V, Marte, J, Biggs, R, (2024) 2024 Open Air Quality Data: The Global Landscape. OpenAQ, Washington, DC. https://documents.openaq.org/reports/Open+Air+Quality+Data-The+Global+Landscape+2024.pdf
Safi, H., Malkawi, M., Tobías, A., Stafoggia, M., & Gumy, S. (2024). Time to Act for Clean Air for All in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region; Strategic Actions for the Health Sector. International Journal of Public Health, 69, 1608001. https://doi.org/10.3389/ijph.2024.1608001
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