A new emission inventory called POPE reconstructs PFAS releases to air and water worldwide from 1950 to 2020 at half-degree resolution, the paper reports.
The paper presents POPE, a global inventory that estimates emissions of 23 widely used Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) to air and to water, gridded at 0.5 degrees and resolved annually from 1950 to 2020, according to the authors. The authors state that the inventory is "compatible with current global emission estimates" and that they explored its temporal and spatial variability.
To build the inventory, the authors combine industrial and socio-economic data, such as the E-PRTR pollutant register, NACE economic classifications, US-EPA facility records, population and GDP, with point sources like factories and airports, letting emissions change over time as production volumes, usage and recapturing efficiency change.
The authors are explicit that POPE covers only 23 PFAS compounds, described as among the most widely used, out of the much larger universe of PFAS substances that exist. They also note that the model is intended as input for separate atmospheric and marine transport models, meaning POPE itself estimates emissions, not environmental concentrations or exposure directly; the paper does report a comparison of modelled river concentrations against independent measurements as part of its evaluation.
Researchers modelling PFAS fate, or policymakers evaluating phase-out scenarios, can use POPE as a ready-made emissions input rather than building one from scratch. The authors note that even a theoretical global stop in PFAS production would leave "significant legacy pollution" to be expected, a reminder that emissions history, not just current output, matters for future environmental burden.
The research
Pascal Simon, Martin Otto Paul Ramacher, Stefan Hagemann, Volker Matthias, Hanna Joerss, Johannes Bieser (2026). POPE: an annual global half degree emission inventory for PFAS 1950–2020. Earth system science data. https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-5713-2026
Licence: CC BY (terms). The Gufo’s commentary is ours; the paper’s text stays with its authors.
