When a group of Polish citizens began using publicly available air quality data in 2015 to challenge authorities, they sparked a movement that would eventually cover 90 percent of Poland with anti-smog regulations. Unsatisfied with the life-threatening consequences of poor air quality in their community, Polish Smog Alert compiled open-source data to get the message out about high pollution levels in their communities. This case goes to show—in the fight against environmental threats, information is not just power, but a vital catalyst for change.
Across Europe today, journalists and data experts are following this blueprint. Transforming complex environmental data into accessible information that empowers citizens to demand cleaner air is urgent. Although studies have long shown the relationship between air pollution and increased mortality, Europe still grapples with an air pollution crisis that affects nearly every resident of the continent.
The scale of Europe’s air pollution challenge
The invisible threat is staggering in scope. A 2023 investigation by the Guardian found that 98 percent of Europeans are breathing “highly damaging” polluted air. According to the World Health Organisation, exposure to fine particulate matter was estimated to cause 239,000 premature deaths in 2022 alone, making air pollution the continent’s single largest environmental health risk.
Despite a decline in overall air pollution emissions over the last two decades, the effects remain severe according to the European Environment Agency (EEA). Growing evidence shows that air pollution, particularly the smaller PM2.5 particles, which are dangerous due to their small size, affects almost every organ in the body.
These particles are linked to a vast range of health issues, from heart and lung disease to cancer and diabetes, as well as depression, mental illness, cognitive impairment and low birth weight. One recent study even found air pollution to be responsible for a million stillbirths a year, while another revealed that young people living in cities already have billions of toxic air pollution particles in their hearts.
Air pollution does not harm everyone equally: Lower socio-economic groups tend to be exposed to higher levels of air pollution.
In Paris, air pollution disproportionately affects the most deprived neighbourhoods, with a direct link to a higher number of premature deaths in these areas.
In Czechia, groups with less education and higher unemployment were found to often reside in cities with higher concentration levels of combustion-related air pollutants.
The worst-hit country in Europe for air pollution is North Macedonia. Here, almost two-thirds of the population lives in areas with more than four times the WHO guidelines for PM2.5. Four areas, including the capital Skopje, were found to have air pollution levels almost six times the currently recommended figure of 5 µg/m³.
Making the invisible visible
While the European Parliament’s December 2024 adoption of the Ambient Air Quality Directive represents progress—aligning 2030 EU air quality standards more closely with WHO recommendations—waiting until 2030 could mean up to a million lives lost if current pollution levels remain unchanged.
Experts say urgent action is needed now. The data backing air pollution claims is publicly available, but it needs to reach the public in accessible ways. This is where data-driven journalism becomes crucial. When citizens understand air pollution data, they are able to, on one hand, take steps towards reducing their contribution by, for example, using fewer vehicles. Importantly, it also empowers them to make informed choices about what precautions they can take in the short term. For example, while it’s not always possible to choose where you live, checking air forecasts when leaving the house or the best times to exercise outside can make a big difference to pollutant exposure.
Perhaps more impactful in the long term, however, is that understanding air pollution data empowers citizens to raise their voices and advocate for systemic change.
Empowering journalists to uncover pollution sources
Olaya Argüeso Pérez, former editor-in-chief of the investigative journalism network CORRECTIV, has created a clear roadmap for journalists to investigate pollution sources affecting their communities. Her approach centres on the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR), a publicly accessible database containing environmental data on industrial facilities across Europe.
Companies must disclose emissions of 91 different pollutants into air, water and land when they exceed specific thresholds. These pollutants span seven categories: greenhouse gases, other gases, heavy metals, pesticides, chlorinated organic substances, other organic substances and inorganic substances.
Aside from Argüeso Pérez’s work to empower investigative journalists, data from E-PRTR was then used by the CORRECTIV team to inform the public. Check out their work:
“Industrial air pollution costs Europe 265 billion euros in one year” &
“Hard To Breathe: Livestock Emissions And The Long Road Towards Sustainability”.
Data from the E-PRTR and other public registers, when combined with expert analysis, has already created impactful journalism. In 2019, researchers from Utrecht University in the Netherlands and the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute used a combination of high-resolution satellite data, pollution monitoring stations and information about land use to model annual average PM2.5 levels across Europe as part of the EU-funded Expanse project. The Guardian then used this data in 2023 to create an interactive map revealing Europe’s worst-hit areas.
In Poland, the reforms and programmes initiated by the Polish Smog Alert have had a dramatic impact. The number of regions with excessive particulate matter concentration fell from 38 out of 46 in 2012 to just 14 in 2022. This has saved lives. The number of premature deaths ue to air pollution in the country has decreased by 20 percent within the same timeframe. That amounts to 10,000 fewer deaths a year. Their success earned them a nomination for Prince William’s Earthshot prize in 2023.
Information is the path to environmental action
The lesson from these successes is clear: while landmark legislation like the revised Ambient Air Quality Directive provides essential frameworks, informed citizens are the true catalyst for change.
Open data and data-driven journalism serve as essential tools for converting complex environmental information into an empowered citizenry capable of demanding clean air for all. As Dirk Messner, President of the German Environment Agency, notes: “Even if the new [European air pollution] limit values only gradually approach the significantly lower WHO recommendations, any improvement in air quality will lead to a reduction in the health risk for the population as a whole.”
In the fight against Europe’s air pollution crisis, information is not just power—it’s the foundation for the citizen action that can save the lives of our families and neighbours.
