WMO bulletin shows air quality and climate interlinkages

This bulletin, sixth in the series, provides an overview of notable aspects of air quality and climate change in 2025, emphasizing the strong linkages between air quality, climate, human health and ecosystems. It highlights how atmospheric composition affects climawmte, health and agricultural productivity, and how pollutants can be transported across oceans and continents. The Bulletin focuses particularly on aerosol, including global particulate matter concentrations, aerosol-cloud interactions, atmospheric deposition, bioaerosol monitoring, wildfire smoke and ground-level ozone.

The Bulletin draws on satellite observations, atmospheric models, data assimilation products, monitoring networks and scientific studies. The report highlights increasing health impacts from wildfire smoke, notes that extreme fire-smoke events have tripled globally since the 1990s, and warns that ozone-related health risks are expected to intensify under climate change and more frequent heatwaves. The authors emphasize the importance of treating air quality and climate change as interconnected issues, strengthening global atmospheric composition monitoring networks, filling observation gaps in developing countries, supporting science-for-services initiatives, improving early warning systems, and expanding monitoring of pollutants, aerosols and ozone to protect people from exposure and inform effective adaptation and mitigation measures.