Over 80 percent of Spain breathes air that is too polluted: what it means for the Costa Blanca

More than 80 percent of Spain’s population breathes air that is too polluted by the new European standards. That was Greenpeace’s message this weekend, on the eve of the International Day of Clean Air. Almost 33 million people were above the limits that will apply from 2030 last year. It sounds alarming, and partly it is. But if you live on the Costa Blanca or own a second home here, the useful thing is to understand what exactly is changing, where the risks sit in our region and how to keep an eye on air quality yourself.

What exactly is going on

First, the nuance missing from many headlines: Spain is not massively breaching its current legal standards. The Greenpeace figure measures the air against the new European directive, which sharply tightens limits towards the World Health Organization’s guideline values. Spain must transpose those rules into national law by December 2026, after which the stricter limits apply from 2030; the current Spanish law dates back to 2008. Measured against that new bar, the air falls short for more than four in five Spaniards. The main culprit is road traffic, with nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter, followed by industry, ports and airports. And ozone, the problem child of summer, reached its highest national level since 2015 in 2025.

And on the Costa Blanca?

For our region the picture is more nuanced than the national figure suggests. The coastal towns generally score decently for nitrogen dioxide and particulates: the sea breeze refreshes the air and heavy industry is scarce. Classic pollution concentrates around busy through-roads and city centres. The real regional watchpoint is ozone. That gas forms on hot, sunny days from exhaust fumes and peaks not in the city but inland, where the sea breeze pushes the pollution. At some rural monitoring points in the Valencia region the health threshold is exceeded more than twenty days a month in summer, and thanks to the heatwaves 2025 was the worst ozone year there since 2019. If you live in an inland valley, you will see moderate air on high-summer afternoons more often than someone by the sea.

Who should pay extra attention

For healthy adults, the air on the Costa Blanca is no cause for concern. Extra alertness applies to the groups sensitive to air pollution: the elderly, young children, pregnant women and anyone with asthma, COPD or cardiovascular conditions. For them the ozone peak matters most, falling between midday and early evening on hot days. The advice is simple: plan exertion such as sports, cycling or brisk walks in the morning, stay indoors during siesta hours and air the house in the morning rather than the afternoon. If you are house-hunting with sensitive lungs, it is wise not to settle right on a busy through-road; a few streets make a noticeable difference.

How to keep an eye on it yourself

Measuring is knowing, and that is well organised here. From May to September the Generalitat Valenciana publishes a daily ozone forecast through its Previozono programme, and the regional monitoring network can be followed station by station at mediambient.gva.es. For a quick daily glance, the European Air Quality Index of the European Environment Agency is the handiest: the app and website show a colour code from good to very poor per monitoring point. For the record: in the Netherlands and Belgium the air also falls short of those same new standards in many places, so this is no reason to avoid Spain. It is a reason to know, just like at home, when not to go running along the motorway.

About the authorLeonie

Leonie lives on the Costa Blanca. She writes about daily life on the coast: the markets, the walks and everything you only discover once you actually live here.