Health Desk- 13 Feb,
2020: 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 Wednesday.
The report from the Centre 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.
"Air pollution from fossil fuels is a threat to our
health and our economies that takes millions of lives and costs us trillions of
dollars," said Minwoo Son, clean air campaigner at Greenpeace East Asia.
The global cost for 2018 was $2.9 trillion, the report
estimated.
"But this is a problem that we know how to solve: by
transitioning to renewable energy sources, phasing out diesel and petrol cars,
and building public transport."
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.
By far the most costly pollutant is microscopic fine
particulate matter (PM 2.5), which accounts for more than two trillion dollars
per year in damages, measured in health impacts, missed work days and years
lost to premature death.
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