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A new report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) stated that it has measured above average PM (particulate matter) 2.5 levels over India, due to an increase in pollution emissions from human and industrial activities. In contrast, China and Europe have recorded below-average pollution levels due to reduced human-caused emissions, continuing a trend observed since the WMO Bulletin’s first publication in 2021, the report said highlighting the severity of the PM 2.5 problem in India.
PM2.5, tiny particles with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers or less, pose serious health risks, especially with long-term exposure. Sources include fossil fuel emissions, wildfires, and desert dust. The WMO Bulletin used data from two sources for the study—Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service and NASA’s Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO)—to estimate global PM concentrations.
The WMO Air Quality and Climate Bulletin, in its fourth year now, includes a special focus on wildfires and also looks at global and regional concentrations of particulate matter pollution and its harmful effects on crops in 2023. ‘Ambient air pollution causes more than 4.5 million premature deaths annually and wreaks a high economic and environmental cost,’ the report said.
Air quality and climate change
This year’s theme, Invest in Clean Air Now, explores the intricate relationship between air quality and climate. Climate change, driven by the accumulation of greenhouse gases, unfolds over decades to centuries and affects the global environment. In contrast, air pollution near the Earth’s surface occurs over days to weeks and spans local to regional areas, such as urban centers or regions like the eastern U.S., northern India, and the Amazon. Despite these differences in timescale and scope, air quality and climate change are closely linked, with certain pollutants influencing both issues, the report said.
Air pollutants that degrade air quality are often emitted alongside greenhouse gases, meaning changes in one affect the other. As pollutants settle, they harm ecosystems by depositing nitrogen, sulfur, and ozone, which reduces vital ecosystem services like clean water, biodiversity, and carbon storage, the report said.
“Climate change and air quality cannot be treated separately. They go hand-in-hand and must be tackled together. It would be a win-win situation for the health of our planet, its people and our economies, to recognize the inter-relationship and act accordingly,” WMO Deputy-Secretary-General Ko Barrett said in a press release.
“This Air Quality and Climate Bulletin relates to 2023. The first eight months of 2024 have seen a continuation of those trends, with intense heat and persistent droughts fuelling the risk of wildfires and air pollution. Climate change means that we face this scenario with increasing frequency. Interdisciplinary science and research is key to finding solutions,” added Ko Barrett.
High PM levels have reduced crop yields in India
The report also stated that high levels of PM have negatively impacted crop yields in India, highlighting how ‘agriculture is itself a major contributor to PM through release of particles and their precursors by stubble burning, fertilizer and pesticide applications, tillage, harvesting, and manure storage and use.’
‘Experimental evidence from India and China indicates that dry deposition of PM in highly polluted areas reduces crop yields by up to 15%,’ the report said.
The report added that global PM hotspots include agricultural areas in Central Africa, Pakistan, India, China and South-East Asia.
Airborne particles, either in their original form or chemically altered, can impact crops both nearby and far away, traveling distances from tens to thousands of kilometers through the atmosphere, the report added.
Current PM standards focus on protecting people from consuming crops contaminated with harmful substances like heavy metals but do not address PM’s direct and indirect effects on food production. Where PM concentrations are high, dry deposition of PM onto crops can reduce sunlight reaching crops and block leaf stomata, disrupting water vapor and carbon dioxide exchange, which negatively impacts plant growth, the report added.
Particulate matter (PM) indirectly impacts crop growth by altering solar radiation reaching the Earth’s surface. Studies show that during the 2010s, this reduced rice and wheat yields in China by about 4.6% and 4.7%, respectively. Additionally, aerosols can affect crop yield reliability by changing precipitation patterns, the report further added.
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