Tackling air pollution and climate change together would boost global GDP by 2.8 per cent by 2035, according to a UN report, as the majority of the world continues to be exposed to air that remains below global quality standards.
UN: Every US$1 invested in climate and clean-air action can return US$15
Every US$1 invested in tackling climate change and air pollution together can generate around US$15 in economic benefits, according to a report published today by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC). This is higher than tackling climate and clean air separately, and it includes both market and non-market economic gains.
Released on the International Day of Clean Air for blue skies, Hidden assets: The economic and health case for climate and clean air action is the first comprehensive global economic assessment of integrated climate and clean-air action.
“For too long, we have treated climate action as a cost to be managed and air pollution as the unfortunate outcome of development. This report shows the opposite: clean air is a key driver of development, health, food and energy security, and climate stability – an asset we must invest in,” said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP. “Proven solutions already exist. What we lack is the decisive leadership from governments, financial institutions, and businesses to deliver them with the speed and coordination this crisis demands.”
The economic value of action
The annual economic benefits of implementing 25 measures that this report identified would be equivalent to:
- 2.8 per cent of global GDP in 2035
- 4.5 per cent of global GDP in 2050
- 11.4 per cent of global GDP in 2100
In comparison, 2.18 per cent of global GDP was spent on explicit fossil fuel subsidies in 2022 and 9.3 per cent of global GDP was spent on healthcare in 2023.
Every year of delayed action would forgo more than US$1.5 trillion annually – 0.5 per cent of GDP – in combined market and non-market benefits.
Even excluding non-market welfare benefits, the measures return around US$4 for every US$1 invested.
“A benefit-cost ratio of 15 to 1 would attract capital instantly in almost any other sector. The only reason it hasn’t on integrated climate and clean air action yet is that the returns are split across health systems, productivity and avoided climate damage rather than landing on a single balance sheet. Every year of delay costs the world more than USD1.5 trillion in benefits we will not get back. Finance ministries and investors who keep climate and air quality in separate budget lines are leaving trillions on the table,” said Elliott Harris, independent, co-chair of the Assessment.
The human cost of air pollution
The US$15 return includes measurable market benefits – such as lower healthcare expenditure, greater labour productivity, and avoided physical damage – and the monetary value of fewer premature deaths and healthier lives.
In 2025, exposure to human-caused outdoor air pollution (PM2.5 and ozone) was linked to an estimated 6.4 million premature deaths worldwide. Household air pollution was linked to a further 2 million premature deaths, including around 300,000 children.
Unlike previous assessments, the report factors in the economic effects of air pollution-related illness, including pressure on health services, losses to productivity and well-being. In 2025, outdoor air pollution contributed to 5.5 million new cases of childhood asthma, 2 million new cases of dementia and millions of cases of heart attack, pulmonary disease, diabetes, stroke and lung cancer.
A package of 25 proven measures
The package of measures examined in the report spans six sectors – energy and fossil fuel systems, industry, transport, agriculture and food systems, residential cooking and heating, and waste management – and combines both long-term decarbonisation measures and measures that target super pollutants such as methane, black carbon, and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).
Measures include renewable power and energy efficiency, increasing clean cooking and heating solutions, tighter vehicle emission and efficiency standards, inspection and maintenance, electric vehicles and low-sulfur shipping fuels, recovery of associated gas to end routine venting and flaring and reduce oil and gas leaks, livestock and manure management, more efficient fertilizer use, improved rice cultivation and alternatives to crop residue burning, better solid waste and wastewater management, and phasing down HFCs.
By 2050, full implementation of the 25 measures could cumulatively prevent 144 million air pollution related premature deaths, including 96 million from ambient air pollution alone, and hundreds of millions of cases of chronic disease.
Many deliver domestic health and economic benefits within a single term of government.
Air quality and climate gains
Compared with the report’s baseline scenario, immediate implementation of the measures would halve global carbon dioxide emissions by 2050, reduce methane emissions by 60 per cent and cut major air pollutants – including black carbon, sulphur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides — by around 70 per cent.
The measures would avoid approximately 0.34°C of global warming by 2050 and 1.4°C by 2100. Because land temperature rises faster than the global average, avoided warming in most regions would be greater, reaching an estimated 1.5–2°C by 2100. By the end of the century, carbon dioxide emissions under the scenario would be net negative, while major air pollutants would fall by up to 85 per cent.
“This report provides the most rigorous evidence yet that treating climate change and air pollution as separate problems causes us to underestimate the benefits of tackling either. When we modelled them together, the returns were larger than each could show alone, because the same sources, sectors and policies so often drive both,” said Simon Dietz, Co-Chair of the Assessment and Professor of Environmental Policy, London School of Economics.
The economic value of cleaner air materializes quickly enough to outweigh the implementation cost within a decade and continues to make up almost half of the total economic benefits in 2100, as detailed in the report.
Closing the implementation gap
Institutional barriers – including fragmented decision-making, limited enforcement capacity, and weak government coordination – are the most significant of the implementation barriers identified.
Cumulatively, these barriers risk delaying full implementation by almost eight years globally. Addressing them including through fiscal policy incentives and regulation that enable private sector to roll out technologies that are both profitable and reduce emissions, could accelerate deployment and unlock up to US$10 trillion in additional health benefits by 2040.
This report calls for integrated climate, air-quality, health and economic planning, stronger institutions and enforcement, and better alignment of public and private finance.
The full report is available here.
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