The Africa Air Quality Brief 2026

A limited number of African governments (national, sub-national, city) actively monitor air quality, and many countries do not yet have national air quality standards. Increasingly,  monitoring initiatives by governments and projects led by researchers and civil society are expanding the availability of air quality data across the continent. There is also growing availability of modelled estimates which leverage earth observations, ground monitoring data and atmospheric models. 


This brief, the first in the series, attempts to provide a continental overview of air quality, identify areas where progress has been made, spotlight successful actions, and outline future priorities. Authors draw on the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) dataset on global reanalysis of atmospheric composition to assess the status of air quality and historical trends across Africa. Data are analysed both for annual and daily exceedances to reflect both short-term and long-term exposure to air pollution and compared against the 2021 World Health Organization Air Quality Guidelines and Interim Targets (WHO-IT). 

This brief also provides two illustrative examples of how different sources can contribute to increases in PM2.5 across different seasons using the CAMS global atmospheric composition forecasts. Note that these datasets rely on a combination of Earth observation data, ground monitoring data, and atmospheric models, which may result in uncertainties in the estimates especially where data are sparse.