This is the third installment of a four-part series exploring how U.S. Embassies positively impact air quality monitoring around the world.

Central Asia is facing a growing public health crisis due to air pollution. In 2024, Tajikistan ranked as the sixth most polluted country in the world—highlighting the urgent need for reliable data and cleaner air.

Central Asian cities frequently face hazardous air quality levels due to coal burning for cooking and home heating, industrial emissions, vehicle traffic, frequent dust storms, and limited environmental regulations (1)(2). These sources of air pollution have significant health implications for residents and contribute to the growing environmental challenges in the region.

In recent years, the U.S. State Department has tried to help improve regional air quality awareness. Starting with Astana, Kazakhstan and Tashkent, Uzbekistan, U.S. embassies in Central Asia began installing air quality monitors over the past decade to help improve regional health outcomes (3)(4). These regulatory-grade monitors provided real-time, independent air quality data, filling a critical gap in a region where governmental air quality monitoring is often sparse or non-existent. 

Embassy air quality data became an invaluable tool for assessing pollution levels and understanding the environmental risks faced by local populations – a tool now at risk as the U.S. prepares to phase out this program globally. 

How U.S. Embassy monitoring made a difference

As noted in the 2024 World Air Quality Report, Central Asian countries have long struggled with a lack of real-time air pollution monitoring, making it difficult for governments, activists, and citizens to track pollution levels and advocate for effective clean air policies. Without reliable data from air quality monitors, the true scope of air pollution remained largely invisible, complicating efforts to address the issue. This was especially true for pollutants like PM2.5, which is fine particulate matter measuring 2.5 microns or less. PM2.5 is particularly harmful, because it is small enough to penetrate deep into the lungs and bloodstream, leading to respiratory issues, heart diseases, and increased mortality.

Cities like Almaty, Kazakhstan, Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan are profoundly affected by poor air quality, especially in winter, due in part to coal burning for home heating and temperature inversions trapping pollutants in the region’s valleys and foothills. The need for accurate, real-time data became urgent to both understand the scale of the problem and to advocate for change.

In response, U.S. State Department embassies installed air quality monitors in key Central Asian capitals, providing real-time data on pollutants like PM2.5. This data was made publicly available, allowing local communities, NGOs, and researchers to gain a clearer understanding of pollution levels and the associated health risks (5). With this newfound transparency, air quality data from U.S. embassies became an essential resource for local media, leading to increased public awareness and coverage of the urgent issue of air pollution.

Building local expertise and advocacy

The U.S. State Department built on health advocacy efforts by funding local NGOs in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan to build local expertise in air quality monitoring and policy development (6). This initiative trained air quality experts throughout the region, equipping them with the skills needed to measure pollutants, analyze data, expand local air quality awareness, and advocate for clean air policies.

While air quality laws in Central Asia remain underdeveloped, the training program and growing air pollution awareness contributed markedly to the region's evolving approach to environmental regulation – and local activists have seen results in recent years. 

Slow air quality improvements and challenges in Central Asia

In recent years, some Central Asian cities have seen modest improvements in air quality. Kazakhstan, for example, has made progress in reducing emissions from its coal-burning power plants and is beginning to phase out older, more polluting vehicles in favor of electric vehicles (7)(8). 

In 2024, Uzbekistan announced plans to roll out national air quality standards, a monitoring platform, and a mobile application (9). In 2025, Uzbekistan's Senate approved a law fining construction companies for failing to reduce sand and dust from construction sites (10).

However, despite these positive changes, many Central Asian cities continue to struggle with poor air quality. Heavy reliance on coal for energy production, industrial pollution, and outdated transportation systems remain significant challenges. Dust storms, particularly in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, also contribute to hazardous pollution levels.

Some governments in the region still lack comprehensive air quality monitoring and enforcement systems, which are essential for tracking pollution levels and ensuring effective policy implementation. For example, the U.S. State Department hosts the primary air quality monitors in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan and Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan—with little additional air quality monitoring available for either country outside of their respective capital cities.

U.S.-backed air quality campaign in Central Asia

In 2020, the U.S. launched a comprehensive air quality awareness campaign in Central Asia, utilizing television broadcasts and social media to reach a broad audience and raise awareness about the dangers of air pollution. The campaign successfully reached 11 million people through television, sparking widespread conversation about air pollution and its health impacts (11).

Media coverage of embassy air quality data played a pivotal role in pushing air pollution to the forefront of public health discussions in the region. Increased air pollution visibility helped drive public pressure for policy changes, with several Central Asian governments acknowledging the urgent need for stricter regulations and more robust air quality monitoring systems.

Despite those assurances, embassy air quality monitors are viewed as crucial for maintaining accountability and accuracy. For instance, the embassy monitor in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, is considered essential by environmental activists for understanding the city’s air quality, as they fear government officials may be incentivized to downplay the air quality crisis (12).

The end of embassy monitoring and its impact

The U.S. State Department announced its intent to shutter its air quality monitoring program at embassies worldwide by the end of March 2025. The Department cites cost as a factor. Given that U.S. State Department data has played a critical role in providing real-time, independent information on air pollution, it’s a decision that has drawn concern among researchers and advocates; the actual cost of transmitting data is “just tens of thousands of dollars a year,” according to one researcher (13). On the scale of government funding expenses, it’s a relatively small investment that helps secure goodwill in host countries, reducing public health costs, and protecting embassy workers and families.

Eliminating these embassy monitors will make it more difficult to understand air pollution sources, health implications, and successfully push for cleaner air policy in the region. Environmental activists, who have often been subject to government persecution, will lose crucial support and reliable data backing their efforts to effect change (14).

The takeaway

U.S. State Department air quality monitoring has been instrumental in raising pollution awareness and successfully advocating for clean air policies in Central Asia. Independent data provided by these regulatory-grade monitors has empowered local communities, experts, and NGOs to advocate for meaningful policy changes and air quality improvements. It makes little sense to cease publishing data, particularly when these air quality monitors have improved public health in their host countries and, as researchers note, have already paid for themselves (15).

While others may work to fill the growing air quality gap, the State Department still has an opportunity: restore access to publicly funded data from monitors that have already proven their value in supporting U.S. diplomacy abroad. Doing so would help keep air quality a shared priority for governments and citizens—and support continued policy improvements across Central Asia.

Next week: In our final installment in this four-part series, learn about defunding U.S. Embassy air quality monitoring and its global consequences.  Missed our previous installments? Start with how the U.S. State Department started a Chinese environmental movement and see how U.S. embassies champion air quality in Africa.