The cost of air pollution: Strengthening the economic case for action

Air pollution takes huge economic toll on poor countries and costs the world more than $5 trillion annually reveals the new World Bank study on economic costs of indoor and outdoor pollution. 

Report seeks to estimate the costs of premature deaths related to air pollution, to strengthen the case for action and facilitate decision making in the context of scarce resources. An estimated 5.5 million lives were lost in 2013 to diseases associated with outdoor and household air pollution, causing human suffering and reducing economic development. Those deaths cost the global economy about US$225 billion in lost labor income in 2013 and more than US$5 trillion in welfare losses, pointing toward the economic burden of air pollution.