Climate investments could yield $15 return for every dollar spent
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The United Nations Environment Programme and Climate & Clean Air Coalition analysed how investments addressing pollution and climate change could benefit both human health and economies.
For a long time, people viewed climate action as a cost and air pollution as an unavoidable part of development. However, this analysis shows that combined action against pollution and climate change could save millions of lives and generate approximately $15 in economic return for every $1 invested.
The UN is urging countries to coordinate policy reforms to improve public health, strengthen economies, and speed up progress toward climate goals. These reforms include adopting renewable energy, electric vehicles, and clean fuels. The UN estimates that air pollution causes 6.4 million premature deaths globally each year, along with 5.5 million new cases of childhood asthma. It also links pollution to millions of cases of dementia, heart attacks, lung disease, diabetes, stroke, and lung cancer.
Implementing anti-pollution measures could prevent 144 million premature deaths and hundreds of millions of cases of chronic disease by 2050.
