Toxic Air Costs Bangladesh $14bn Each Year: Report

An estimated $14 billion annually costs Bangladesh air pollution from the burning of fossil fuels — accounting for more than 5 percent of the country's GDP, a new report has revealed.

According to the report carried out by Greenpeace South Asia and the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), fossil-fuel-related air pollution is also attributed to the premature deaths of approximate 96,000 citizens each year.

The first-of-its-kind study, ' Toxic Air: The Cost of Fossil Fuels, ' measures the impact on global health and quantifies the economic cost of air pollution from the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and gas.

Using data published in 2019, the report shows that each year about 4.5 million premature deaths worldwide are due to air pollution caused from burning fossil fuels.

"Air pollution raises the prevalence of chronic and acute illnesses and leads to millions of hospital visits and billions of absences of work each year due to illness. It also affects our communities and the atmosphere," the report states.

Throughout low-income countries, children are especially vulnerable to air pollution. An additional 40,000 children die before their fifth birthday from exposure to PM2.5 contamination, which according to the study is also due to approximate 2 million preterm births.

The global cost of air pollution from fossil fuels has reached an estimated US$8 billion per day or 3.3% of the world’s GDP, the study found.

The economic cost of air pollution reflects pollution concentrations, population size and the availability and cost of healthcare.

China, the US, and India bear the highest fossil-fuel air pollution costs worldwide, estimated at US$ 900 billion, US$ 600 billion, and US$ 150 billion annually, respectively.

The report calls for a shift to sustainable, carbon-neutral transport to curb climate change and reduce threats to the environment.

“Effective public transport systems and good walking and cycling infrastructure enable mobility, reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, and correlate with a decrease in rates of cardiovascular disease, cancer, obesity, diabetes, mental illness, and respiratory disease.”

According to the study, one of the most important ways policymakers will catalyze sustainable mobility is to set a phase-out deadline for electric, coal, and petrol cars and implement comprehensible and affordable public transit, including healthy walking and cycling infrastructures.