Pakistan’s air quality is 15 times high than the safe limit

ISLAMABAD, Jul 20 (APP):Pakistan’s recently recorded air quality is 15 times higher than the safe limit in some areas, which is a big danger to human health, reveals an unpublished National State of Environment Report (NSOER) to be launched soon.

At a consultation session, held jointly by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) in collaboration with the Ministry of Climate Change on Monday, the researchers discussed in detail the troubling new findings of the report that mainly focuses on the youth, said a press release issued here.

The session, aimed at gathering youth input for the upcoming report, came nearly a decade after Pakistan’s last State of Environment Report was published in 2016 that had no dedicated youth edition.

Speaking on the occasion, Zainab Naeem, Associate Research Fellow, Head of Ecological Sustainability and Circular Economy at SDPI, said the youth engagement process would directly feed into a standalone version of the national report, giving younger citizens a formal voice in a process that has historically excluded them.

She said that the gap was now being addressed as part of a broader push to involve young people directly in shaping national environmental policy.

Neelum Pari, SDPI Research Associate, walked participants through preliminary findings compiled under the internationally recognized DPSIR framework which assessed environmental issues through their Drivers, Pressures, State, Impact, and Response. The methodology, she explained, allowed researchers to trace environmental degradation from its root socio-economic causes through to the policy responses meant to address it.

Among the most striking revelations was the state of Pakistan’s air quality. According to the findings presented, concentrations of PM 2.5, fine particulate-matter considered especially dangerous to human health, have been recorded at up to 15 times the safe limit in some areas, with little to no improvement recorded between 2023 and 2024.

Citing global research, she noted that Pakistanis were losing an estimated 3.4 to 3.9 years of life expectancy on average due to air pollution, with South Asia among the worst-affected regions globally. She said that the full implementation of Pakistan’s existing National Clean Air Policy could cut PM2.5 emissions by 36 to 38 per cent by 2030, and as much as 80 per cent by 2050 provided the policy was properly enforced, which was currently lacking.

Beyond air quality, the report’s findings spanned twelve chapters covering water resources, agriculture, disaster risk, environmental health, and governance and accountability, including data on environmental compliance cases registered nationally. The report revealed that data gaps across provinces meant some regions, particularly the Punjab, were more heavily represented than others due to greater data availability from provincial Environmental Protection Departments.

The report also identified specific policy weaknesses including gaps in legal enforcement, weak monitoring mechanisms, and financing shortfalls and laid out short- and long-term action plans. The report recommended stronger legal enforcement frameworks, simplified access to international climate finance, including the Green Climate Fund, mandatory wastewater treatment plants near industrial zones, a phase-out of single-use plastics in favour of alternatives, and expanded investment in climate-smart farming and energy transition.

Following the technical briefing, participants led by Amna Urooj, and Ihtesham ul Haq of SDPI were split into four thematic working groups and tasked with identifying youth-specific environmental priorities and outcomes to be incorporated into the final youth edition of the report.

The participants were also provided participation certificates at the conclusion of the consultation, which was participated by climate experts, environmentalists, civil society members, academicians, students and experts.