2024-10-02, 14:30–14:50, Maria Theresia Seminar room (Conference Center Laxenburg)
Air pollution, particularly fine particulate matter (PM2.5), ground-level ozone (O3), and nitrogen dioxide (NO2), poses a significant global health risk, contributing to early mortality. Measuring population exposure is crucial for understanding and mitigating these health impacts. This paper leverages recent advancements in air pollution data to review various global air pollution datasets based on a criteria set. The framework facilitates comparisons between various hybrid datasets (combining ground-based and satellite measurements) and offers a methodology for constructing air pollution exposure indicators for PM2.5, O3, and NO2. It uses the Global Burden of Disease data to update the indicator set on the national and subnational levels across the 1990-2020 period. Results reveal that most OECD countries fall short of the World Health Organization's (WHO) 2021 air quality guidelines for PM2.5, O3, and NO2. Countries such as Chile, Korea, Poland, and Türkiye exhibit PM2.5 concentrations (population weighted) exceeding safe levels by a factor of four. Similarly, several OECD countries such as Korea, Italy, and Slovenia experienced severe O3 exposure in 2020, while non-OECD countries such as India displayed even higher population weighted O3 concentrations, exceeding safe levels by more than double. A sensitivity analysis further indicates that despite similar trends observed across different air pollution datasets, considerable differences are found between global datasets and national statistics. This highlights the need to further examine the accuracy of the various data sources and help guide policy analysis at the national and subnational levels. Given the widespread failure to meet safe air quality standards, our findings emphasize the urgent need for global policy actions to reduce population exposure to air pollution and safeguard public health.
Mikaël Maes is a climate and environmental data scientist with over 9 years of professional experience in international organizations, academia, and the private sector. He currently works at the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) in Paris (France), working with OECD countries and analyzing large geospatial data sources to support them with environmental and climate change challenges. Previously, Mikaël obtained a doctorate degree in Environmental Science at University College London, where he was part of a large epidemiological study researching the associations between nature exposure and children's mental health and cognitive development. Mikaël also holds an MSc degree in Environmental Science from King's College London, as well as MSc and BSc degrees in Biology from Ghent University.