Africa’s worsening air pollution has received too little attention. We argue that actions are needed in energy transition management, transport emission regulation and waste management to protect Africa’s air quality.
References
Singh, A., Avis, W. R. & Pope, F. D. Environ. Res. Lett. 15, 084002 (2020).
Clean Air Fund. The State of Global Air Quality Funding 2020 - An Analysis of Official Development Finance and Foundation Funding to Improve Outdoor Air Quality (Clean Air Fund, 2020).
Giwa, S. O., Adama, O. O. & Akinyemi, O. O. J. Nat. Gas Sci. Eng. 20, 373–379 (2014).
Oberschelp, C., Pfister, S., Raptis, C. E. & Hellweg, S. Nat. Sustain. 2, 113–121 (2019).
Anderson, D. C. et al. Nat. Commun. 7, 10267 (2016).
IEA Africa Energy Outlook 2022 (IEA, 2022).
Okello, G. et al. Environ. Int. 171, 107709 (2023).
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. World Population Prospects 2022: Summary of Results (UN DESA/POP/2022/TR/ NO. 3) (UN DESA, 2022).
Friedlingstein, P. et al. Earth Syst. Sci. Data 14, 4811–4900 (2022).
C40 cities. Clean air accelerator. c4.org, https://www.c40.org/accelerators/clean-air-cities/ (2022).
Peltier, R. E. (ed.) An Update on Low-cost Sensors for the Measurement of Atmospheric Composition (World Meteorological Organization, 2021).
Hodoli, C. G., Coulon, F. & Mead, M. I. Environ. Pollut. 317, 120448 (2023).
International Renewable Energy Agency. The Renewable Energy Transition in Africa: Powering Access, Resilience and Prosperity (Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, 2021).
Mbandi, A. M. et al. Energy Strategy Rev 49, 101120 (2023).
AirQo Africa. Clean air for all African cities, https://airqo.mak.ac.ug/about-us (accessed 29 September 2023).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Mead, M.I., Okello, G., Mbandi, A.M. et al. Spotlight on air pollution in Africa. Nat. Geosci. 16, 930–931 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-023-01311-2
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-023-01311-2
- Springer Nature Limited