PARIS – The global cost of air pollution caused by fossil fuels is $8 billion a day, or roughly 3.3 percent of the entire world’s economic output, an environmental research group said on Wednesday.
The report from the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) and Greenpeace Southeast Asia is the first to assess the global cost of air pollution specifically from burning oil, gas and coal.
“We found that the China Mainland, the United States and India bear the highest costs from fossil fuel air pollution worldwide, an estimated $900 billion, $600 billion and $150 billion per year, respectively,” the report said.
Particles thrown off by fossil fuel usage account for 4.5 million premature deaths each year around the globe, including 1.8 million in China and a million in India, the researchers found.
The new figure is in line with World Health Organization (WHO) estimates of 4.2 million deaths each year linked to ground-level air pollution, mostly from heart disease, stroke, lung cancer and acute respiratory infections in children.
Living in the New Delhi area of India is like smoking 10 cigarettes a day, earlier research has shown.
The global cost for 2018 was $2.9 trillion, the report estimated.
The 44-page report breaks down the global burden of fossil fuel-driven air pollution – measured in economic costs and premature deaths – by type of pollutant and by country.
Each year the global economy takes a $350 billion hit from nitrogen dioxide (NO2) – a byproduct of fossil fuel combustion in vehicles and power plants – and a further $380 billion hit from ozone, according to middle-ground estimates.
Middle-range estimates of the number of premature deaths stemming from fossil fuel pollution include 398,000 for the European Union, 230,000 for the United States, 96,000 for Bangladesh, and 44,000 for Indonesia.
Among countries taking the biggest economic hit each year are China ($900 billion), the United States ($610 billion), India ($150 billion), Germany ($140 billion), Japan ($130 billion), Russia ($68 billion) and Britain ($66 billion).
Globally, air pollution accounts for 29 percent of all deaths and disease from lung cancer, 17 percent from acute lower respiratory infection, and a quarter from stroke and heart disease, according to the WHO.
Air pollution is a focal point of social discontent in some parts of the world, leading some experts to speculate that it could drive a more rapid drawdown of fossil fuel use. (AFP)
