Five guiding principles to close the world's air quality data gaps

Air pollution is the largest environmental health risk on the planet, causing 6.7 million premature deaths globally each year, and costs the global economy an estimated $8.1 trillion annually – about 6% of global GDP, according to the World Bank.

To put that into perspective, if the economic cost of air pollution were a country, it would be the third-largest economy in the world.

Yet in the places where health and economic impacts are most severe, the most basic tool needed for fighting it is often still missing – and that is data. In 2024, 36% of countries lacked any air quality monitoring, and nearly one billion people live in 71 countries with no evidence that their government monitors the air at all, OpenAQ reports.

In fact, across parts of Central Africa, South Asia and Latin America experiencing some of the highest fine particle air pollution levels in their regions, there is not a single reference-grade air quality monitoring station sharing fully open data for their combined populations of 300 million. Without that data, it is difficult for governments, communities or funders to take crucial first steps to reduce air pollution, or understand how that action is working.

More air quality data is being generated worldwide now than ever before. Over the past decade, the proliferation of lower-cost sensors, alongside continued investment in reference-grade monitoring, has made measurement possible in places where it once was not. But generating data and making it accessible are two very different things.

In many contexts, air quality monitors exist but the data they produce is not publicly accessible or translated into clean air actions. The reasons vary: governments may lack the technical infrastructure to publish data openly or may not yet prioritize doing so among competing demands. There is also fear that publishing high pollution levels may project a negative image, potentially deterring investment or harming tourism.

Making air quality data public can also be politically sensitive, as it often means acknowledging a problem that is difficult and expensive to solve. In some cases, restrictive policies from governments or sensor companies prevent even willing data collectors from sharing what they measure.

This means that a lot of data that could help a country’s clean air work remains behind closed doors. Some sensor companies do not allow customers to own the data they generate and a funder simply asking those companies about their policies led to roughly 30% of them changing course. However, this addressed only one piece of a larger problem.

The barriers to open air quality data are structural, political and commercial. Overcoming them requires a common set of expectations and that is what the guiding principles developed by the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Clean Air aim to provide: a shared framework that any stakeholder, regardless of where they are in their clean air journey, can point to and act on.

Evidence shows air pollution often improves significantly when monitoring data is made publicly available. The route to open data varies from place to place, but it enables policy actions, strengthens accountability, supports scientific advances and the air gets cleaner over time.

This is playing out in real time. Over the past two years, a growing number of locally led monitoring projects – many supported by funders like the EPIC Air Quality Fund and Clean Air Fund – have shown how quickly modest investments can shift national trajectories when the data they produce is open.

In Gambia, a small non-profit's open monitoring network and collaboration with the National Environment Agency has catalyzed and informed the content of landmark legislation that will allow the country’s first air quality standards. Locally-led initiatives like AirQo are demonstrating a model where openness and contextualized public data access reinforce each other to catalyze clean air actions.

In Uganda, by leveraging open-ready systems, AirQo has worked hand-in-hand with National Environment Management Authority and Kampala Capital City Authority to formulate and operationalize national air quality regulations and standards, demonstrating that data which is locally owned, responsibly shared and publicly accessible directly informs clean air policy.

A similar model is emerging in Kenya through collaboration with Nairobi City County, where hyperlocal open air quality data is not merely published – it is embedded within local governance systems, shaping regulation and enabling measurable improvements in air quality.

These efforts share a common thread: the impact of monitoring is amplified when the resulting data is freely accessible, machine-readable and shared in near-real time. Open data doesn't just serve one community – it feeds into regional science, policy coordination and cross-border accountability. But that amplification only happens if data openness is built in from the start, not treated as an afterthought.

Here are five guiding principles developed by the Global Future Council on Clean Air, designed to offer a practical, actionable framework for governments, philanthropic funders, the private sector and civil society:

Support the deployment of air quality monitoring to close data gaps and build sustained local capacity. Embed open data requirements into the design and setup of monitoring systems from the start – including procurement processes, licensing and data infrastructure. Open data should not be an afterthought; it should be a design requirement.

Support air quality sensing equipment that grants data ownership to the purchaser and enables them to share data publicly on a platform of their choice – wherever logistically, legally, technically and politically feasible. If the people generating the data do not own it, the data's potential impact is fundamentally constrained.

Support data collectors in pledging to data quality, integrity, openness and sovereignty. Ensure public sharing of reliable air quality data in a fully open and harmonized manner whenever appropriate. Open data without quality controls erodes trust, quality data without openness limits reach.

Encourage data providers to adopt standard protocols and open data formats to facilitate quality control, data sharing and interoperability. Consistency and transparency – informed by academic best practice and developed through public-private collaboration – enable data from different sources to be compared, combined and acted upon.

Encourage all stakeholders to maximize the utility of open air quality data – developing strategies and accelerating actions and solutions for clean air. Data is a means, not an end. The ultimate measure of success is whether the air gets cleaner.

These five principles translate into concrete actions for different stakeholders.

These principles are a starting point, not a finished product. The norms around air quality data are still being set. The choices that funders, governments and companies make right now will determine whether the data revolution in air quality monitoring reaches the places, and the people, who need it most.

The infrastructure to change that has never been more accessible: the sensors exist, the local leaders exist, the evidence base exists. What has been missing is a shared set of expectations around the data that ties it all together.

Across air, water and land, pollution is placing a mounting burden on ecosystems, economies and public health. Healthy people and productive societies depend on environmental conditions that are increasingly under strain, yet pollution remains one of the most pervasive and least integrated global risks.

To help address the global problem, the World Economic Forum will act as a trusted platform for dialogue and knowledge exchange through multistakeholder cooperation.