Illinois

Air Data reports are produced from a direct query of the AQS Data Mart. The data represent the best and most recent information available to EPA from state agencies. However, some values may be absent due to incomplete reporting, and some values may change due to quality assurance activities. The AQS database is updated by state, local, and tribal organizations who own and submit the data. Readers are cautioned not to rank order geographic areas based on Air Data reports. Air pollution levels measured at a particular monitoring site are not necessarily representative of the air quality for an entire county or urban area. This report is based on monitor-level summary statistics. Air quality standards for some pollutants (PM2.5 and Pb) allow for combining data from multiple monitors into a site-level summary statistic that can be compared to the standard. In those cases, the site-level statistics may differ from the monitor-level statistics upon which this report is based.

This database includes annual, quarterly and monthly information on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions related to commercial passenger, freight, and general aviation flights, on both a territory and a residence basis, for 186 countries. These CO2 emissions are estimated by the OECD, based on a consistent methodology across countries. The main source used for the estimation of these CO2 emissions is a database compiled by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) with all commercial passenger and freight flights around the world.

The EPA Green Book’s Criteria Pollutant Nonattainment Summary Report provides summary information about population living in an area that is in nonattainment for at least one of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS).

Note: Source has discontinued Energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions vary significantly across states, whether considered on an absolute or per capita basis. Total state CO2 emissions include those from direct fuel use across all sectors, including residential, commercial, industrial, and transportation, as well as primary fuels consumed for electric generation. The overall size of a state, as well as the available fuels, types of businesses, climate, and population density, play a role in determining the level of both total and per capita emissions. Additionally, each state’s energy system reflects circumstances specific to that state. For example, some states have abundant hydroelectric supplies, while others contain abundant coal resources. This paper presents a basic analysis of the factors that contribute to a state’s CO2 profile. This analysis neither attempts to assess the effect of state policies on absolute emissions levels or on changes over time, nor does it intend to imply that certain policies would be appropriate for a particular state. The term energy-related CO2 emissions includes emissions released at the location where fossil fuels are consumed. Therefore, to the extent that fuels are used in one state to generate electricity that is consumed in another state, emissions are attributed to the former rather than the latter. Analysis attributing emissions to the consumption of electricity, rather than the production of electricity, would yield different results. For feed-stock application, carbon stored in products such as plastics are subtracted from reported emissions for the states where they are produced.

Air pollution is considered one of the most pressing environmental and health issues across OECD countries and beyond. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) has potentially the most significant adverse effects on health compared to other pollutants. PM2.5 can be inhaled and cause serious health problems including both respiratory and cardiovascular disease, having its most severe effects on children and elderly people. Exposure to PM2.5 has been shown to considerably increase the risk of heart disease and stroke in particular. For these reasons, population exposure to (outdoor or ambient) PM2.5 has been identified as an OECD Green Growth headline indicator. The underlying PM2.5 concentrations estimates are taken from van Donkelaar et al. (2016). They have been derived using satellite observations and a chemical transport model, calibrated to global ground-based measurements using Geographically Weighted Regression at 0.01° resolution. The underlying population data, Gridded Population of the World, version 4 (GPWv4) are taken from the Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) at the NASA. The underlying boundary geometries are taken from the Global Administrative Unit Layers (GAUL) developed by the FAO, and the OECD Territorial Classification, when available. The current version of the database presents much more variation with respect to the previous one. The reason is that the underlying concentration estimates previously included smoothed multi-year averages and interpolations; while in the current version annual concentration estimates are used. Establishing trends of pollution exposure should be done with care, especially at smaller output areas, as their inputs (e.g. underlying data and models) can change from year to year. We recommend using a 3-year moving average for visualisation.

The OECD Green Growth database contains selected indicators for monitoring progress towards green growth to support policy making and inform the public at large. The database synthesises data and indicators across a wide range of domains including a range of OECD databases as well as external data sources. The database covers OECD member and accession countries, key partners (including Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and South Africa) and other selected non-OECD countries.