Why Clean Air Matters | Yara International

The Silent Health Crisis

Air pollution is the biggest environmental health risk of our time. It leads to stroke, heart and lung diseases, cancer, and asthma. According to the World Health Organization, around 8.1 million people die each year due to poor air quality. That’s one person every 4 seconds.

NOx is one of the harmful ingredients in this toxic cocktail. Emitted from internal combustion engines (ICE) its release must be prevented.

Regulators around the world have done just that, introducing successively tighter emission regulations.

Now NOx emissions from the transport sector have dropped dramatically, thanks to advanced exhaust after treatment systems and AdBlue.

Converting dangerous NOx to harmless water vapour and nitrogen AdBlue is a lifesaver. Ensuring clean air to breathe for hundreds of millions.

Two main types of Emissions to Air

8.1 million

People death p.a locally

2.8 degrees

increase temperature trend globally

What we’ve achieved and what’s next

NOx emissions graph

Thanks to tighter emission regulations and technologies like SCR (Selective Catalytic Reduction), NOx emissions in Europe have been cut in half since 1990. Today, about 33 million diesel vehicles across Europe depend on AdBlue to reduce their emissions.

The number of diesel vehicles almost doubled over that period, so the emission reduction cannot be attributed to less diesel vehicle use or less transport activity. Transport volumes stayed the same or increased in most countries in the same period.

Therefore the reduction is overwhelmingly due to stringent EU vehicle emission standards (Euro I–VI), which forced manufacturers to fit advanced aftertreatment technologies (notably SCR/AdBlue for trucks and newer cars) that dramatically cut NOx emissions per vehicle.

Ever-stricter emission standards are made possible by SCR and AdBlue

Around the world, cleaner-air rules are getting tougher for on-road - cars, vans, trucks, and buses – and off-road applications. Farming and forestry, mining and construction sites – they all apply diesel engines subject to ever-stricter standards. Europe’s Euro 6 will soon be replaced by Euro 7 and similar rules in North America, India—they are all becoming ever-stricter, shifting the focus from lab tests to real driving.

“Euro 7 will be the first emissions standard to regulate air pollutants from all vehicles—cars, vans, and heavy-duty vehicles—under a single set of rules and for much longer periods of use”

(European Commission, 2022).

Vehicles must keep emissions extremely low in city traffic, on hills, in heat and cold, and at all speeds. This matters most where people are exposed the most: busy towns and growing urban areas.

For diesel vehicles, SCR systems with AdBlue® are central to meeting these expectations—helping engines stay efficient while removing harmful NOx before it reaches the air we breathe.

Older test cycles were limited. The new global direction is clear: prove cleanliness on the road and over time. That means start-stop conditions, cold starts, heavy loads—and keeping performance strong for many years, not just at first registration.

For auto makers, stricter standards means SCR plus AdBlue is the inescapable, practical path to ultra-low NOx in real-world use.

For fleets and drivers, this translates into reliable, low-emission operation over a vehicle’s lifetime. For society, it means clean air to breathe

Yara’s role - Expanding global impact

AdBlue® has proven its effectiveness in Europe, and now its benefits are reaching other parts of the world. With five AdBlue® production plants in Europe and North America and a growing presence in Asia and South America, Yara is ready to meet the world’s rising demand.

As the world’s largest producer of AdBlue® Diesel Exhaust Fluid, Yara plays a key role in ensuring a reliable supply for the global fleet of vehicles and machinery that depend on AdBlue® — from freight trucks to passenger cars. These vehicles play a vital role in daily life, and thanks to AdBlue®, they do so with significantly reduced emissions.

That’s the true legacy of AdBlue®: enabling mobility while protecting the air we all breathe.

Link to chapter 7

Whose trademark is AdBlue®

AdBlue® is a registered trademark of the Verband der Automobilindustrie e.V (VDA), the German Association of the Automotive Industry, who - when this technology was implemented 20 years ago - wanted a neutral and common name for the reagent necessary to reduce NOx emissions from of their vehicles.

The quality of AdBlue® is regulated in ISO 22241-1 to 4 which specifies the quality characteristics of AUS 32 (aqueous urea solution). The right to use the AdBlue® trademark requires a license from the VDA. The license is subject to VDA's audit, to ensure compliance with the ISO standard.

The same product is called DEF (Diesel Exhaust Fluid) in North America, and ARLA 32 in Brazil.

AdBlue® / DEF / Arla32 by Yara is sold under Yara's Air1™ trademark.