<\/p>\n
A new assessment by the United Nations (UN) Environment Programme (UNEP) and Climate and Clean Air Coalition examined 25 measures across energy, industry, transport, agriculture, household cooking and waste management.<\/p>\n
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The report, Hidden assets: The economic and health case for climate and clean air action, was released for the International Day of Clean Air for blue skies on September 7.<\/p>\n
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Measures include renewable energy, electric vehicles, clean cooking fuels, energy efficiency, stronger vehicle emission standards, low-sulphur shipping fuels and reduced oil and gas leaks. \u201cFor too long, we have treated climate action as a cost to be managed and air pollution as the unfortunate outcome of development,\u201d UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen said.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThis report shows the opposite: clean air is a key driver of development, health, food and energy security, and climate stability.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Annual benefits could equal 2.8% of global gross domestic product by 2035, rising to 4.5% by 2050 and 11.4% by 2100.<\/p>\n
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Even without calculating the economic value of longer and healthier lives, the measures could return about $4 for every $1 invested. \u201cEvery year of delay costs the world more than $1.5 trillion in benefits we will not get back,\u201d Assessment Independent Co-Chair Elliott Harris said.<\/p>\n
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Human-caused outdoor air pollution was linked to 6.4 million premature deaths in 2025. Household air pollution contributed to another 2 million deaths, including about 300 000 children.<\/p>\n
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Outdoor pollution also contributed to 5.5 million new childhood asthma cases and 2 million new dementia cases during 2025.<\/p>\n
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Full implementation of the measures could prevent 144 million premature deaths linked to air pollution by 2050, alongside hundreds of millions of chronic disease cases.<\/p>\n
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Immediate action could halve global carbon dioxide emissions by 2050, cut methane emissions by 60% and reduce major air pollutants by about 70%.<\/p>\n
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The proposed measures could prevent about 0.34\u00b0C of global warming by 2050 and 1.4\u00b0C by 2100.<\/p>\n
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However, fragmented decision-making, weak enforcement and limited government coordination could delay full implementation by almost eight years. The report called for integrated climate, health, air-quality and economic planning supported by stronger institutions and better-aligned financing.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–UN\/ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":44426,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-44859","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Co-ordinated action on air pollution and climate change could save millions of lives while generating about $15 in economic benefits for every $1 invested.","published_date":"","news_description":"Co-ordinated action on air pollution and climate change could save millions of lives while generating about $15 in economic benefits for every $1 invested.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/44859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/44859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44866,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/44859\/revisions\/44866"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=44859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}