Ghana is facing a worsening air-pollution crisis with rising deaths and widening exposure risks, the Agency (EPA) has warned, as new national data, district-level findings and regulatory measures dominated discussions at a clean-air knowledge-sharing forum held on Tuesday, 25 November, at the Sunlodge Hotel in Tesano.
A statement delivered on behalf of EPA Chief Executive Professor Nana Ama Browne Klutse described air pollution as one of the biggest health threats of the era, citing global and national statistics showing dangerously deteriorating air quality.
According to the EPA, research by international and local institutions indicates that 29% of the world’s population lives with unhealthy PM2.5 levels, with almost all of humanity breathing air that exceeds WHO guidelines. It noted that 2.6 billion people globally are exposed to hazardous household air pollution from traditional cookstoves.
The situation in Ghana is even more alarming. More than 28,000 people die each year nationwide from air-pollution exposure, while the Greater Accra area alone records 2,800 pollution-related deaths annually.
The State of Global Air 2025 report ranks air pollution as the second-largest risk factor for early death worldwide, while a World Bank analysis identifies it as Ghana’s number one environmental risk, responsible for 80% of total annual mortality, with children and the elderly most affected.
The EPA warned that without urgent intervention, the country’s pollution burden will worsen, undermining progress toward UN Sustainable Development Goals on health, urban sustainability and climate action.
It linked Ghana’s pollution challenges to rapid and unplanned urbanisation, unsustainable consumption patterns, electronic and industrial waste, dust from unpaved roads, ageing and poorly maintained vehicles, and seasonal bush burning.
The forum also emphasised the significance of the Environmental Protection Act, 2025 (Act 1124), which repealed Act 490 and transformed the Environmental Protection Agency into the stronger Environmental Protection Agency, mandated to regulate, coordinate and enforce all environmental and climate-related controls.
New tools under this mandate include the Environmental Assessment Regulations, 2025, revised national air-quality and emission standards now under review, and the Ghana Online Continuous Emission Monitoring System (GOSEMS) for real-time tracking of emissions from regulated undertakings.
The agency also announced the expansion of air-quality monitoring networks—with support from the Energy Policy Institute of Chicago—and the launch of a national dashboard to provide real-time pollution updates to the public. The Air Quality Management Regulations (LI 2507), which took effect in July 2025, were described as a milestone in Ghana’s clean-air governance.
One of the starkest findings came from PSS Urbania, a Breathe Accra grantee working across 13 districts. Their monitoring revealed dangerously high sulphur dioxide levels at multiple hotspots in the capital. In Jamestown, where fish-smoking is widespread, women reported high rates of air-pollution-related illnesses.
La (Labadi) emerged as the highest-risk district overall, while Abofu, a major meat-processing enclave, recorded SO₂ and PM2.5 levels so severe that researchers warned: “We all like wele, but wele is killing us.” The assessment also raised concerns about schools with bare, dusty compounds that leave children heavily exposed to particulate matter.
The research forms part of the Breathe Cities initiative, under which Breathe Accra was launched in 2023 to strengthen scientific monitoring, policy development and public awareness across 13 districts.
The programme’s portfolio manager, Dr. Elvis Gyeabuor, urged swift implementation of district-level plans, stressing the human cost: nearly 32,000 annual deaths linked to air pollution—surpassing fatalities from road accidents, malaria and HIV.
Sustainability and long-term financing dominated remarks by Desmond Appiah, Country Manager for the Clean Air Fund, who warned that without integrating air-quality actions into municipal budgets, interventions will collapse once donor funding ends. He cautioned that Ghana risks becoming “a country of pilots,” where well-tested ideas stall after initial funding cycles.
Appiah highlighted Adenta as an example of a district successfully leveraging school and market-based recycling to reduce waste burning and called for cross-district collaboration to scale such innovations.
He added that development partners are increasingly shifting to restricted funding—with strict conditions on how resources must be used—making it crucial for assemblies to present clear, costed, ready-to-finance air-quality plans.
He cited a case in which Accra lost continuation funding to Kumasi and other African cities because it failed to demonstrate domestic investment in sustaining earlier interventions.
