Clean air

To improve air quality in Brazil’s large urban areas and meet WHO recommendations

To know the air we breathe, we must properly monitor air quality. Air monitoring in Brazil is scarce: only nine of the country’s 25 states, as well as the Federal District, do it. The government shares very little information on air quality and polluting sources. Estimates by the World Health Organization (WHO) show that air pollution caused over 50,000 deaths in Brazil in 2016.

Polluting source control (either stationary sources, like factories, or mobile sources, like vehicles) still fails to meet the air quality standards established by WHO. There is no law guaranteeing resources for the use of air quality management tools, such as air quality monitoring and inventories of air pollution sources.

We need to know the air we breathe in order to improve it. That is why the Institute for Energy and Environment (IEMA) has been working in this field since its early days. Our goal is to improve air quality in Brazil’s large urban areas to meet WHO recommendations.