CNN Air pollution went to unhealthy levels around the world in 2021, according to a new report.
The report by IQAir, a company that tracks global air quality, found that average annual air pollution in every country and 97% of cities exceeded the World Health Organization's air quality guidelines, designed to help governments craft regulations to protect public health.
Only 222 cities of the 6,475 analyzed had average air quality that met WHO's standard. Three territories were found to have met WHO guidelines: the French territory of New Caledonia and the US territories of Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.
India, Pakistan and Bangladesh were among the countries with the worst air pollution, exceeding the guidelines by at least 10 times.
Scandinavian countries, Australia, Canada, Japan, and the United Kingdom ranked among the best countries for air quality, with average levels that exceeded the guidelines by 1 to 2 times.
In the United States, IQAir found that air pollution exceeded WHO guidelines by 2 to 3 times in 2021.
The report underscores the need for governments around the world to help reduce global air pollution, Glory Dolphin Hammes, CEO of IQAir North America, told CNN.com. Governments need to set more stringent air quality national standards, and explore better foreign policies that promote better air quality, because fine particulate matter kills far too many people every year. IQAir analyzed pollution-monitoring stations in 6,475 cities across 117 countries, regions and territories.
The authors note that the United States' reliance on fossil fuels, increasing severity of wildfires and varying enforcement of the Clean Air Act from administration to administration have all added to U.S. air pollution.
The research shows that the main sources of pollution in the US were fossil fuel-powered transportation, energy production and wildfires, which wreak havoc on the country's most vulnerable and marginalized communities.
Hammes, who lives a few miles from Los Angeles, said we are heavily dependent on fossil fuels, especially in terms of transportation. We can act smartly on this with zero emissions, but we're still not doing it. We're seeing a huge impact on the air pollution in major cities because of this. This is a part of the formula that will lead to global warming. Hammes said something.
The report also revealed some inequalities: Monitoring stations in some developing countries in Africa, South America and the Middle East are scant, resulting in a lack of air quality data in those regions.
Hammes said that when you don't have that data, you're really in the dark.
Hammes noted that the African country of Chad was included in the report for the first time due to an improvement in its monitoring network. The country's air pollution was the second-highest in the world last year, behind Bangladesh, according to IQAir.
Tarik Benmarhnia, a climate change epidemiologist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography who has studied the health impact of wildfire smoke, also noted that relying only on monitoring stations can lead to blind spots in these reports.
Benmarhnia, who was not involved in this report, said that it was great that they relied on different networks and not only on governmental sources. Many regions don't have enough stations and alternative techniques exist. Hammes said that the IQAir report is more of a reason for the world to wean off fossil fuel.
She said we have got the report, we can read it, we can internalize it and really devote ourselves to taking action. There needs to be a major move towards renewable energy. We need to take drastic action in order to reverse the tide of global warming, otherwise the impact of the train we're on would be irreversible.