Europe's air quality is slowly improving, according to the latest report by the EU’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS). Since 2015, the concentration of pollutants such as sulphur and nitrogen oxide in the air have fallen by 3-5% each year in the EU, largely caused by reductions in industry and road traffic.

That's good news – but air pollution is still deadly. Last year, 182,000 Europeans died due to polluted air, the latest report by the European Environment Agency found. This is only half the amount from two decades ago, but still a significant number.

“In the course of the last 10 years, there’s really been some improvement, there’s no denying it,” Łukasz Adamkiewicz, the president of the European Clean Air Centre, told The European Correspondent.

Yet Europe will have to do more to meet its own standards for healthier air. A few years back, Adamkiewicz' team reported that his native Poland should be on track to fulfil the EU’s 2030 Ambient Air Quality Directive standards. But now, similarly to many other member states, the country is running behind – and paying for it in lives.

EU air quality regulations are among the strictest in the world, nearing the World Health Organisation’s recommendations. Under the Air Quality Directive, pollution levels will need to be measured and the records made public. Citizens will be able to get compensation if their health is damaged because their country or region doesn’t respect the regulations.

Countries have until 11 December to adopt national regulations realising the Air Quality Directive. As of now, only nine member states have more or less suitable legislation to meet the standards.

Six member states do not currently meet emission reduction goals for polluting particles set by the EU National Emission reduction Commitments Directive for 2020-2029, according to a recent EEA report. Only four member states are on track to make all emission reduction commitments by 2030.

Poland is among the worst polluters in the continent, followed by Türkiye and the Western Balkans.

One major reason for this is heating: the worst air quality is often found where people burn low-quality fuel to heat their homes. Across the EU, 32% of households are heated with coal or wood, producing high amounts of small particulate matter harmful to human health. Coal in particular is very popular in Poland (34% of households use it), but also in Czechia (14%) – both coal-producing countries.

“It’s mostly a matter of [insufficient] subsidies.” A few years back, the Polish state funding to replace polluting furnaces “used to be quite large,” but “today, there aren't so many funds available,” Adamkiewicz explained. According to Piotr Siergiej of the Polish Smog Alert, the subsidy programme has been plagued by corruption, delays, and unreliable funding.

Still, much has been done to improve air quality in Poland, Siergiej says, and it’s paying off. Between 2014-2020, the economic cost of poor air quality was estimated at 250 billion zlotys, or €60 billion per year – “we’re talking about lost work days, […] healthcare costs, etc. It's a cliché, but prevention is easier than treatment.” The same applies to the rest of the continent.

My hometown, Kraków, was actually the number one most polluted city in the world this January. As much as the city tries to fight smog, there's still a long way to go.