Environment

New UN report: why clean air is good for the budget

The study highlights how measures to tackle air pollution generate significant economic benefits and improve global health by reducing mortality and chronic diseases

8 September 2026

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Tackling pollution is a profitable choice. This is the conclusion of a report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) published on 7 September.

Clean air is not merely an environmental cost, but a genuine driver of development and an economic asset for finance ministries. Every dollar invested in the twenty-five integrated solutions identified by the experts generates around 15 dollars in total economic benefits. These solutions would include the transition to renewable energy sources, reducing emissions in the oil and gas sector, stepping up post-combustion controls in industry and power stations, improving energy efficiency, and introducing stricter standards on vehicle emissions.

The benefits to GDP

Implementing these measures will generate benefits equivalent to 2.8 per cent of global GDP by 2035, 4.5 per cent by 2050 and up to 11.4 per cent by 2100. The investment required amounts to around 0.7 per cent of global GDP over the next decade, falling to 0.5 per cent by 2100 (far less than what governments currently spend on fossil fuel subsidies, which amounts to 2.18 per cent of GDP).

But the benefit is not merely economic. Until now, public budgets have treated healthcare as an isolated area of expenditure. The UNEP report overturns this view, demonstrating that human capital and workers’ health are the real drivers of GDP, whilst pollution acts as a heavy, invisible tax that erodes nations’ productive capacity.

The implications for public health

In 2025 alone, air pollution took a huge epidemiological toll, causing 6.4 million premature deaths outdoors and 2 million indoors. Among these victims, the deaths of 300,000 children under the age of five represent not only a human tragedy, but a direct destruction of tomorrow’s economic potential and workforce. Implementing the integrated package would prevent 144 million premature deaths and drastically reduce the burden of chronic diseases that place a strain on public expenditure: 62 million cases of childhood asthma; 87 million heart attacks and 45 million strokes; 63 million cases of COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) and 56 million cases of type 2 diabetes; 36 million cases of dementia and 7 million cases of lung cancer.

Air pollution is linked to climate change, with which it shares the main sources of emissions (in particular fossil fuels); joint action is therefore required. With the 1.5°C threshold now deemed to be inevitable, integrated action is the only means of limiting the peak in global warming and reducing its duration. The 25 solutions prevent a 34°C rise in temperature by 2050 and a further increase of 1.4°C by 2100, reducing sea-level rise from 1 metre to 0.8 metres.

As well as improving health, reducing methane use prevents the loss of 26 million tonnes of crops, thereby mitigating food price inflation and safeguarding the agricultural trade balance. Furthermore, the 600,000 deaths per year that will be prevented by 2100 as a result of cooling are essential pillars for the sustainability of social security systems in the context of an ageing population.

Unresolved issues

However, institutional and financial barriers remain, such as the fragmentation of responsibilities, weak inter-ministerial coordination and limited administrative capacity, compounded by economic, technical and social constraints which, taken together, risk creating a bottleneck resulting in an average delay of around 8 years in implementation. Every year of delay results in the loss of over 1.5 trillion dollars in cumulative economic and health benefits that cannot be recovered, effectively halving the emissions reduction potential achievable by 2035.

According to the UN report, governments and international financial institutions must take immediate action across five strategic areas: integrate clean air and climate action into national growth plans and budget laws; invest heavily in enabling institutional frameworks; focus on high-impact quick wins (such as controlling methane emissions and clean cooking); align international cooperation by facilitating capital flows to developing regions; and fund data monitoring networks.

Investing in clean air is not just an ethical or moral imperative, but the most rational and profitable choice of our century.