Abstract: It is estimated that 7 million premature deaths occur each year due to exposure to air pollution, according to the United Nations (UN). Every day, the world’s population is affected by the effects of industrial and vehicle emissions, developing various respiratory diseases. With human actions intensifying, the UN has established objectives considered a global call to action to protect the climate and the environment, end hunger and poverty, and ensure that people enjoy peace and prosperity. These were the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and later the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Given the importance of monitoring and controlling atmospheric emissions to preserve human health, SDG 11, Sustainable Cities and Communities established target 11.6, which has as one of its objectives to improve air quality in cities by 2030. Rio de Janeiro is a state that, from the perspective of the impact caused by air pollution, does not differ from other Brazilian regions with air pollution problems. Industrial activities and vehicle traffic are the primary sources of pollutants. The state has automatic and semi-automatic stations from the State Environmental Institute (Inea), indicating air quality standards compliance. Due to the dense urban occupation and high concentration of polluting sources, the network is only present in the Metropolitan region, Middle Paraíba and North Fluminense. The automatic monitoring network consists of 58 stations, while the semi-automatic network consists of 118 stations. Considering that existing networks already violate current standards, established both by the World Health Organization (WHO) and national standards. Therefore, the present work aims to verify whether the state of Rıo de Janeiro can meet target 11.6 of SDG 11, analyzing what concerns air quality. To check the cities that have a monitoring network, Inea network data will be used, collecting the pollutants carbon monoxide (CO), ozone (O3), particulate matter less than 10 μm (PM10) and less than 2.5 μm (PM2.5), available on the Integrated Air Quality Management System Portal. For cities without a monitoring network, data measured by satellite and calibrated with global air quality modeling will be used. This data is available on the Surface PM2.5 platform, developed by Washington University in St. Louis, and made available to the community free of charge. After processing the data, the evolution of pollutant concentrations will be analyzed in the period from 2015 to 2023, based on the monthly and annual arithmetic average and, with this, it will be possible to carry out a linear regression to determine the evolution of concentrations, determining an equation by city. Finally, concentrations will be projected for the year 2030, checking whether cities will reach target 11.6, which is an indicator of the average annual level of inhalable particles in municipalities. The projection results will be compared with the new WHO Global AR Quality Guidelines (GQA) and with the legislation of the state of Rio de Janeiro. It is expected that municipalities with low industrial activity and a small flow of motor vehicles have already met the target, following the WHO standard, while cities with high industrial activity and dense urban occupation will not reach it.

Keywords: Air Quality, Atmospheric pollutants, Rio de Janeiro, SDG, 2030 Agenda.