Air pollution is high on the global agenda and is widely recognised as a threat to both public health and economic progress. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 4.2 million deaths annually can be attributed to outdoor air pollution. Recently, there have been major advances in methods that allow the quantification of air pollution-related indicators to track progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals and that expand the evidence base of the impacts of air pollution on health. Despite efforts to reduce air pollution in many countries there are regions, notably Central and Southern Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, in which populations continue to be exposed to increasing levels of air pollution. The majority of the world’s population continue to be exposed to levels of air pollution substantially above WHO Air Quality Guidelines and, as such, air pollution constitutes a major, and in many areas, increasing threat to public health.

空气污染已成为全球议事日程的重中之重，并被公认为对公共卫生和经济发展的威胁。世界卫生组织（WHO）估计，每年有420万人死于室外空气污染。最近，在方法上取得了重大进展，这些方法可以量化与空气污染有关的指标，以追踪实现可持续发展目标的进展，并扩大空气污染对健康影响的证据基础。尽管许多国家都在努力减少空气污染，但仍有一些地区，尤其是中亚和南亚以及撒哈拉以南非洲，该地区的人口继续面临着日益严重的空气污染。