Reducing air pollution from agriculture in the UNECE region to save lives and biodiversity

Recent studies have shown that emissions from agriculture are a major cause of mortality from air pollution in Europe. While agriculture does not immediately come to mind when thinking about sources of air pollutants, agricultural emissions, namely ammonia or NH3, are the single largest contributor to the formation of fine particulate matter (essentially, dust). Fine particulate matter is a major source of harmful air pollution, as it can penetrate deep into the respiratory system. According to the World Health Organization, human exposure to this type of air pollution is causing about 600,000 deaths annually in the UNECE region. The problem is indeed not a small one: in some European countries, over 40 per cent of air pollution-related mortality can be attributed to emissions from agriculture.