The Air Program is run by the NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW). It has been operating for nearly 75 years and plays a key role in understanding and improving air quality across NSW.
Why we need the Air Program?
The Air Program helps us understand what the air quality is like today, how it is changing, and what it may look like in the future. It provides reliable data and information to a wide range of users, from communities to government and industry. This trusted evidence helps safeguard environmental health and community wellbeing by reinforcing the scientific basis for air quality management in NSW.
The program also supports broader NSW Government goals including:
- Creating healthier, more liveable communities
- Improving air quality and health outcomes through the NSW Clean Air Strategy
- Strengthening air quality management to reduce pollution and exposure under the National Clean Air Agreement
- Supporting progress toward net‑zero emissions under the Climate Change (Net Zero Future) Act.
These goals shape the Air Program’s logic model, which explains how program capabilities, activities and outputs lead to benefits for NSW.
How the program works – Program Logic
The program brings together key capabilities (monitoring, reporting, forecasting, research, modelling and partnerships), to help people understand air quality, assess risks and make informed decisions.
Our program logic maps the pathway from this work to the lasting benefits it creates for NSW:
What the program does – activities
The Air Program works to:
- Monitor air quality across New South Wales through a statewide network of ambient air quality monitoring stations
- Provide up-to-date information by publishing current air quality concentration data and air quality reporting products
- Forecast air pollution to help communities, government and industry prepare for changing air quality conditions
- Maintain and expand the air quality monitoring network as community and environmental needs change
- Collaborate with research partners to strengthen evidence-based regulation and air quality management
- Model and assess air quality and net‑zero scenarios, including the benefits of proposed air quality management actions and interventions.
What the program delivers – outputs
A wide range of services and products, including:
- A statewide air quality monitoring network that is continually improved
- Timely information products, such as:
- Real-time air quality data and easy-to-understand information
- Air quality forecasts
- Automatic alerts when conditions deteriorate
- Assessments during emergencies and special events using modelling to understand air pollution and its effects
- Information on major sources of air pollution
- Tools that help show the benefits of net-zero policies
- Advisory services and expert interpretation to support government, industry and community decision-making on air quality and emissions
- Estimates of how proposed actions could improve air quality and public health.
Program outcomes
The Air Program leads to long-term improvements across NSW. The program logic shows the changes occur over time at three levels (immediate to long-term):
Immediate outcomes – awareness and engagement
- Users have access to timely, relevant air quality and net‑zero information
- People understand air quality categories and why they matter
- Stakeholders engage more actively with air quality issues
- NSW strengthens its expertise and leadership in net‑zero modelling.
Intermediate outcomes – actions and decisions
- People use air quality information to reduce personal exposure
- Users apply air quality data in risk assessments and cost-benefit analyses
- Community and policy makers use air quality science in decisions
- NSW Government uses net‑zero modelling to track climate progress.
Long-term outcomes – program benefits
- Enhanced air quality evidence supports better-informed environmental and public health decision making, leading to improved community wellbeing.
- Strengthened policies and outcomes that enhance amenity and liveability across NSW.