Africa has no shortage of evidence that polluted air is harming people’s health, slowing economic growth and placing an increasing burden on cities already grappling with rapid urbanisation. What the continent lacks, experts say, is the investment and political resolve to turn that evidence into cleaner skies.
That message echoed through the halls of the University of Pretoria as more than 500 policymakers, scientists, city leaders, financiers and environmental advocates from over 45 countries gathered for the 2026 Africa Clean Air Forum. Over four days of discussions, one conclusion emerged with striking clarity: Africa has reached a turning point in its clean air journey. The science is stronger than ever, cities are generating increasingly sophisticated data, and governments are beginning to embrace cleaner transport, fuels and urban planning. The next challenge appears to be implementation.
The forum, held from July 13-16 under the theme “Investment Case for Clean Air and Healthy Cities”, reflected a notable shift in Africa’s air quality conversation. Where earlier meetings focused on proving the scale of the problem, delegates in Pretoria were preoccupied with a different question: how to finance solutions, strengthen institutions and build partnerships capable of delivering cleaner air for the continent’s growing urban population.
Follow us on WhatsApp | LinkedIn for the latest headlines
That shift was evident long before the first plenary session opened. One morning, delegates traded conference halls for running shoes during a “Run for Clean Air” organised by UrbanBetter and AirGradient around the University of Pretoria. Equipped with portable air quality monitors, participants experienced first-hand how citizen science and real-time pollution data can transform something as ordinary as a morning jog into a powerful reminder that the quality of the air people breathe is neither abstract nor invisible. It is measurable, deeply unequal, and increasingly central to Africa’s development story.
Inside the venue, that same sense of urgency continued. Researchers stood beside scientific posters explaining new findings from Kampala, Lagos, Johannesburg, Nairobi and Casablanca. Development financiers debated how to attract greater investment into clean air programmes. Engineers demonstrated advances in low-cost sensors and satellite monitoring, while city leaders exchanged lessons on transport planning, waste management and emissions control.
Taken together, the conversations revealed a continent that is steadily moving beyond diagnosing the problem of air pollution towards building practical, African-led solutions. Yet they also exposed the scale of the work ahead; that of strengthening institutions, mobilizing finance, harmonizing regional standards and ensuring that the communities most affected by pollution are not left behind.
The missing investment
If one issue dominated discussions in Pretoria, it was financing. For all the scientific advances, policy frameworks and growing public awareness, delegates agreed that Africa’s clean air ambitions will remain just that–ambitions–unless governments and development partners unlock significantly more investment.
The numbers tell a sobering story. Although African cities are among the fastest growing in the world and face mounting air pollution challenges driven by transport, industry, waste burning and household energy use, the continent receives less than 1% of global investment dedicated to improving air quality. Participants argued that this mismatch has slowed implementation of projects that could deliver cleaner air, healthier populations and stronger economies.
Yet speakers were equally candid that the problem is not simply the scarcity of money. It is also the scarcity of projects capable of attracting finance. Throughout the forum, economists, development banks and philanthropic organisations challenged governments to rethink how they present clean air interventions; not merely as environmental programmes requiring public expenditure, but as investments capable of generating measurable economic returns.
Sean Maguire of the Clean Air Fund argued that while the scientific evidence linking air pollution to disease is well established, policymakers have not been sufficiently successful in communicating its wider economic implications. Cleaner air, he noted, translates into healthier workers, reduced healthcare expenditure, improved educational outcomes and more attractive environments for investment. Those are arguments that resonate with ministries of finance and investors, yet they remain underutilized in many national clean air strategies.
That perspective was echoed by Francis V. Fragano of the World Bank Group, who described reliable monitoring and robust research as the starting point for bringing finance ministries into the conversation. Without credible evidence demonstrating where pollution occurs, who is affected and what interventions work, governments struggle to build the compelling business cases needed to secure large-scale investment.
For Marcia Kgatuke of the Development Bank of Southern Africa, the answer lies in blended finance–bringing together concessional funding, government resources and commercial capital to reduce investment risks while expanding the scale of clean air programmes.
Meanwhile, Moortaza Jiwanji of the UNDP Africa Sustainable Finance Hub urged African countries to speak the language of investors. “We need to use cost-benefit analysis and rates of return to show how investing in infrastructure can reduce that loss and turn it into a benefit,” he said.
The message reflected a broader shift taking place across Africa’s environmental sector. Increasingly, clean air is being discussed alongside infrastructure, transport, energy and economic planning rather than in isolation.
Participants also highlighted financing opportunities that remain underutilized across the continent, including carbon markets, green bonds, guarantees and wider climate finance mechanisms. While these instruments have helped finance environmental programmes elsewhere, delegates acknowledged that many African institutions still require stronger technical capacity to prepare investment-ready projects capable of accessing them.
Philanthropic organisations are beginning to bridge part of that gap. Representatives from the Earthshot Prize, the Clean Air Fund, the Open Air Foundation, the EPIC Air Quality Fund and Coefficient Giving outlined ongoing efforts to expand support for African-led clean air initiatives, particularly those capable of demonstrating scalable impact. Still, there was little illusion that philanthropy alone can solve the continent’s air quality challenge. Instead, speakers repeatedly returned to a simple proposition: the evidence already exists. What Africa now needs is the confidence–and the capital–to act on it.
Data is becoming Africa’s strongest ally
If finance emerged as the forum’s greatest challenge, data was widely recognised as its most powerful enabler. Across Africa, a quiet revolution is unfolding in the way cities measure the air their residents breathe.
Not long ago, air quality monitoring depended almost entirely on expensive reference-grade equipment that placed comprehensive monitoring beyond the reach of many municipalities. Today, advances in low-cost sensor technology, combined with satellite observations and increasingly sophisticated modelling techniques, are making it possible for African cities to build far more detailed pictures of pollution than ever before.
The discussions in Pretoria suggested that this transformation is changing more than the science. It is changing decision-making itself. Researchers presenting findings from Kampala, Johannesburg, Lagos, Addis Ababa and Nairobi demonstrated how locally generated data is helping authorities identify pollution hotspots, distinguish between emission sources and understand which communities bear the greatest exposure.
The emphasis, however, was not on technology for technology’s sake. Again and again, delegates stressed that monitoring only becomes valuable when it informs policy. That is why increasing attention is being given to open data platforms, locally managed monitoring networks and modelling systems capable of translating thousands of measurements into information that city planners, health officials and policymakers can actually use.
Uganda offered one of the forum’s strongest examples. Since 2018, Kampala has steadily expanded its air quality monitoring network to 134 low-cost sensors supported by three reference-grade monitors under the Kampala Clean Air Plan. The experience has shown how sustained investment in locally owned monitoring systems can move cities beyond isolated pilot projects towards continuous, evidence-based management of air pollution.
Speakers also highlighted the growing contribution of Earth observation technologies. Satellite-derived datasets from NASA and Digital Earth Africa are increasingly helping researchers fill monitoring gaps, particularly in areas where ground-based stations remain limited, providing a more comprehensive understanding of pollution across the continent.
Where solutions are already taking root
For all the attention given to financing gaps and institutional challenges, the mood in Pretoria was far from pessimistic. Threaded through the discussions were examples of African cities and countries already demonstrating that cleaner air is not an aspiration for the future but a reality that can be achieved through sustained investment, political leadership and partnerships grounded in evidence.
In Kisumu, Kenya, a growing collaboration with AirQo has strengthened the city’s air quality monitoring network, enabling authorities to identify pollution hotspots with greater precision while supporting more informed policy decisions.
For Dr. Mathew Owili Ochieng, the Deputy Governor of Kisumu County, the lesson extends well beyond technology. “African cities cannot work in isolation,” he told delegates. “We need to share technologies and policy experience, because data is the foundation of effective policy, and innovation is transforming how we monitor our air.”
His remarks captured another defining feature of this year’s forum: an unmistakable shift towards African-led collaboration. Throughout the week, city leaders were as interested in learning from one another as they were in hearing from international experts. Conversations in corridors, technical sessions and side meetings frequently returned to a simple question: what is already working elsewhere on the continent, and how can those lessons be adapted locally?
The answers came from across Africa. In Togo, delegates heard how newly validated national air quality standards, developed with support from the African Development Bank, are laying the groundwork for compliance efforts through to 2030.
Across the Southern African Development Community (SADC), more than half of member states have already transitioned to low-sulphur fuels; an important milestone in reducing harmful vehicle emissions.
Uganda’s experience also attracted considerable attention. What began as an effort to generate pollution data has evolved into a model demonstrating how locally owned monitoring systems can support regulation, research and public awareness simultaneously.
Perhaps the most striking example came from Casablanca, Morocco, where researchers presented evidence showing that the closure of an open landfill corresponded with an estimated 173 avoided deaths from lung cancer and cardiovascular disease. It was a powerful reminder that behind every policy intervention lie measurable improvements in people’s lives. Collectively, these experiences challenged one of the enduring misconceptions surrounding air pollution in Africa–that solutions remain elusive. Instead, delegates argued, the challenge lies in scaling interventions that have already demonstrated their value.
Putting people at the centre
The forum was equally clear that clean air policies cannot succeed through technology and regulation alone. Again and again, speakers urged governments to remember that air pollution is ultimately a human story; one experienced differently depending on where people live, how they cook, where they work and the resources available to protect themselves.
Women, children and residents of under-resourced communities featured prominently in discussions exploring environmental justice, with researchers highlighting how these groups often experience the highest exposure to household and environmental air pollution while remaining underrepresented in research and policymaking.
“Behind every air quality statistic is a lived experience,” Xoli Fuyani of Black Girls Rising reminded participants, calling for greater investment in community-centred approaches that place environmental justice at the heart of clean air action.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
Those conversations extended beyond the conference halls. The Run for Clean Air, held around the University of Pretoria and supported by real-time air quality monitoring, demonstrated how citizen science can make invisible pollution visible. Rather than relying solely on technical experts, initiatives such as these invite ordinary citizens to participate in understanding the quality of the air they breathe while strengthening public advocacy for healthier cities.
Researchers also presented new work linking air pollution exposure with a range of health and educational outcomes, while studies examining changing rainfall patterns, rising temperatures and poor waste management reinforced the increasingly close relationship between climate change, public health and air quality. Taken together, the presentations underscored an important reality: addressing air pollution requires more than environmental regulation. It demands coordinated action across health, transport, urban planning, energy, education and finance.
From conversation to commitment
As delegates prepared to leave Pretoria after four days of debate, technical exchanges and renewed partnerships, there was little sense that the work had been completed. If anything, the forum reinforced how much remains to be done.
Yet it also revealed something equally important. Across Africa, the foundations of a stronger clean air movement are already being laid. Cities are investing in monitoring networks. Researchers are generating evidence tailored to African realities. Governments are adopting cleaner fuel standards and exploring electric mobility. Development banks, philanthropic organisations and international partners are beginning to recognise clean air not simply as an environmental concern, but as an investment in healthier people, more productive economies and more liveable cities. The challenge now is to bring those individual efforts together.
That means strengthening regional cooperation, harmonizing standards, expanding access to open air quality data and ensuring that financing reaches the cities and communities where it is needed most. It also means recognising that air pollution does not stop at municipal or national borders, a point captured by Gauteng Member of the Executive Council, Ewan Botha, during discussions on regional collaboration. “Air does not need a visa to enter South Africa,” he observed, reminding delegates that the atmosphere shared by African countries demands solutions that are equally shared.
The 2026 Africa Clean Air Forum will be remembered not for identifying the continent’s air pollution problem–that case has already been made–but for marking a transition in Africa’s response to it. The conversations in Pretoria reflected a continent increasingly confident in its scientific expertise, increasingly ambitious in its policy aspirations and increasingly determined to shape its own clean air future. Whether those ambitions translate into cleaner skies will depend less on discovering new solutions than on scaling the ones Africa already has.