A new global assessment warns that Africans are increasingly at risk of dying earlier due to worsening exposure to air pollution. The findings come from the University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute (EPIC), which released its 2025 Clean Air Investment Update during COP30 in Belém, Brazil.

The World Health Organization estimates that air pollution causes about 7 million deaths each year, accounting for one in every eight fatalities worldwide. EPIC’s report goes further, describing air pollution as the largest external threat to human health, cutting lives shorter than HIV/AIDS and malaria combined and causing economic losses comparable to “the impact of 1.5 COVIDs each year.”

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EPIC identified 83 “higher opportunity” countries where small investments of 50,000 to 100,000 USD could produce nationwide improvements in air quality. About 2.9 billion people live in these countries and are exposed to pollution levels more than four times above WHO guidelines. This exposure is estimated to reduce average life expectancy by 1.7 years.

Three African countries – Angola, Zambia, and Burundi – top the list. All face severe pollution challenges with no reference-grade air quality monitoring, weak policy frameworks, and almost no philanthropic support, despite having local expertise and growing interest in air quality management.

Funding for these high-opportunity countries remains scarce. Forty-six receive less than 100,000 USD a year from international donors combined. Total available funding across all of them amounts to less than 190,000 USD annually.

The data gap widened sharply in early 2025 when the U.S. State Department shut down its overseas air monitoring program, eliminating 97 percent of reference-grade monitors in the highest-opportunity countries. Thirty-six countries, representing about 3.4 billion people, now have no reference-grade monitoring at all.

While the outlook is grim, EPIC says targeted investments are already proving effective. Since the launch of its Air Quality Fund, 31 awardees across 19 countries have begun delivering national-scale improvements.

In The Gambia, government agencies are using on-the-ground evidence to shape new clean air policies. A collaboration with Permian Health helped draft landmark environmental legislation now before Parliament and established the first reference-grade monitoring network in the country.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, WASARU and Columbia University have created the country’s first open-data air quality network. The government has begun engaging with the project to inform national policy in what EPIC describes as Africa’s most polluted country.

Pakistan’s Urban Unit has rolled out the country’s largest monitoring network across nearly a dozen cities, making real-time data openly available. In Malawi, the government is producing nationwide air quality bulletins for the first time. The Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences operates the only open-data monitoring system in the country.

Ghana’s Environmental Protection Authority is also generating and sharing air quality data openly for the first time, supporting new air quality management legislation and building momentum for stronger national action.

EPIC warns that the global air quality landscape is becoming “more urgent and more fragile” but says the loss of U.S. State Department monitors has created an even stronger case for modest, locally driven investments. With small, well-targeted funding, the institute argues, countries can build durable clean air systems that protect millions of lives.