Our air 2021: preliminary data release presents the latest data on the state of New Zealand’s air quality. A revised report will be published on 10 December that includes analysis of the 2021 World Health Organization (WHO) air quality guidelines.
The Ministry for the Environment and Stats NZ have published the Our air 2021: preliminary data release today.
We are currently working to revise the Our air 2021 report to incorporate analysis of the World Health Organization (WHO) 2021 air quality guidelines that were released on 23 September 2021. The revised report will be released on 10 December 2021.
Our air 2021: preliminary data release shows that air quality has generally improved at most sites and across many of the indicators used. However, we expect the number of locations with air quality concerns to increase as we revise the Our air 2021 data against the new WHO air quality guidelines.
The preliminary data does show there are many urban areas that suffer from poor air quality at times. This is often in cooler months or where there is heavy traffic.
The preliminary data release compares each pollutant (where applicable) to New Zealand’s National Environmental Standard for Air Quality (NESAQ) and the 2005 WHO air quality guidelines.
Based on improved scientific understanding, the 2021 WHO air quality guidelines are more stringent for most critical air pollutants and reflect the overwhelming evidence of the impacts to human health, even at low levels.
The revised Our air 2021 report, to be released in December, will include:
The revised report will be more concise compared with recent environmental reports, such as Our land 2021, while we focus on responding to the 2019 Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environments review of the Environmental Reporting system.
The Our air 2021: preliminary data release is available on the Ministry for the Environment website and the indicators that help explain the findings are available at New Zealand’s environmental reporting series: Our air 2021 on the Stats NZ website.
This preliminary data release provides updates on seven air quality data indicators and highlights key findings for each one. The indicators referenced in this data release are:
During the final production stages of Our air 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) released updated Global Air Quality Guidelines. This is the first update for 16 years and comes after a systematic review of more than 500 publications by world experts. As such, it builds on the advances in measurement and pollution assessment from a global database as well as epidemiological studies (WHO, 2021).
We recognise the importance of reporting on the most up-to-date scientific understanding of the impacts of air quality, so we are currently updating the findings of Our air 2021 to reflect the 2021 WHO guidelines. A revised report will be released on 10 December 2021. A further update will be published in 2022, that reflects our current understanding of the impacts of air pollution on human health.
However, to ensure we meet our statutory requirements, the Ministry for the Environment and Stats NZ have published a preliminary data release of the Our air 2021 report, and associated indicator webpages today.
The health impacts of air quality indicator used in Our air 2018 is referenced in this release but will be updated with new findings early next year when new data becomes available, with the publication of the updated Health effects of Air Pollution in New Zealand (HAPINZ) study. Please note – the indicator ‘Health impacts of PM10’ used in Our air 2018 has been changed to ‘Health impacts of air pollution’ in Our air 2021 because the new HAPINZ study will include PM2.5 and NO2.
Monitoring data is sourced from regional councils, and Waka Kōtahi (NZTA). Modelled health impacts data was provided by Emission Impossible Ltd. Emissions and activity data is from MfE and Stats NZ.
Statistical analysis of state and trends was done by Stats NZ.
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