Air pollution, as one of the greatest transboundary environmental threats, claims the lives of over seven million people annually, and its global economic damages reach trillions of dollars. Over the past century, international law has made numerous efforts to combat this phenomenon; from the principle of no significant harm in the Trail Smelter case (1941) to the 1979 Geneva Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution and its eight implementation protocols, as well as indirect measures within the framework of the Climate Change Convention (Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement). Despite this, there is still no specific binding global treaty to control classic air pollutants (particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, ozone, and heavy metals), and existing regimes are predominantly regional (Europe and North America) or voluntary.Employing a descriptive-analytical method and relying on international documents, reports from the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and international jurisprudence, the present study demonstrates that the most significant challenges in implementing international legal measures include: the lack of a binding global mechanism, weak monitoring and reporting, the difficulty of proving a causal link between the pollution source and transboundary damage, the conflict between economic development and emission reduction in developing countries, and the political prioritization of climate change over classic air pollution.In the future outlook, the primary proposed solutions include drafting a binding global air quality treaty by 2035, strengthening the role of the WHO as a technical oversight body, establishing a specialized dispute resolution mechanism, utilizing satellite technologies and artificial intelligence for real-time monitoring, and developing regional regimes modeled after the Geneva Convention in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Achieving this vision requires collective political will, active environmental diplomacy, and the integration of international environmental law with the green economy.