Explosive population growth, urbanization and a growing economy – the air over West Africa is exposed to a lot of stress. However, so far there is hardly meaningful information on the effects on health, weather and climate. The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) coordinated the European-African consortium “DACCIWA”, which has collected new data to investigate the causes and effects of air pollution. The study also examined the interaction of air composition and summer monsoon. The research team published their results in a policy brief.