NEW DELHI: A report by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) highlights the economic and health impacts of delaying clean air action in Delhi, indicating that such delays have measurable health costs.
The report states that if Delhi postpones its progress towards meeting national air quality standards by eight years, the reduction in cumulative PM2.5 exposure by 2040 could be cut in half, from 20% to 10% resulting in significantly greater health risks during that period.
In 2025, human-caused outdoor air pollution (PM2.5 and ozone) was associated with an estimated 6.4 million premature deaths worldwide. Additionally, household air pollution contributed to around 2 million premature deaths, including approximately 300,000 children.
Released on the International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies, the report, titled ‘Hidden Assets: The Economic and Health Case for Climate and Clean Air Action’, represents the first comprehensive global economic assessment of integrated climate and clean air actions.
The assessment covers four countries, China, India, Mexico and Nigeria ,which together account for more than 40% of the world's population. These countries are often seen as regional leaders and have extensive experience with key solutions.
According to the report, every US$1 invested in addressing climate change and air pollution together can yield around US$15 in economic benefits.
These US$15 in benefits include quantifiable market advantages, such as reduced healthcare costs, increased labour productivity and avoided physical damage, as well as the monetary value of fewer premature deaths and healthier lives.
The benefits of integrated action surpass those achieved by tackling climate and clean air issues separately, as they encompass both market and non-market economic gains.
The report calculates the annual economic benefits of implementing 25 specific measures aimed at enhancing these benefits.
The proposed measures include renewable energy, improved energy efficiency, clean cooking and heating solutions, stricter vehicle emission and efficiency standards, vehicle inspection and maintenance, electric vehicles, low-sulfur shipping fuels, recovery of associated gas to eliminate routine venting and flaring, better livestock and manure management, efficient fertiliser use, improved rice cultivation, alternatives to crop residue burning, better solid waste and wastewater management, and the phase-down of HFCs.
These measures span various sectors, including energy and fossil fuel systems, industry, transportation, agriculture and food systems, residential cooking and heating, and waste management. Interventions in these sectors can significantly reduce pollutants such as methane, black carbon and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).
Furthermore, implementing these 25 interventions could propel economic growth. According to the report, the benefits could amount to 2.8% of global GDP by 2035, 4.5% by 2050 and 11.4% by 2100. In contrast, 2.18% of global GDP was spent on fossil fuel subsidies in 2022, while 9.3% was allocated to healthcare in 2023. Each year of delayed action results in forgoing more than US$1.5 trillion annually, equivalent to 0.5% of GDP in combined market and non-market benefits.
Compared with the report's baseline scenario, the immediate implementation of these measures would halve global carbon dioxide emissions by 2050, reduce methane emissions by 60%, and cut key air pollutants, including black carbon, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, by approximately 70%.
These actions could avoid about 0.34°C of global warming by 2050 and 1.4°C by 2100.
Given that land temperatures increase more quickly than the global average, the avoided warming in many regions could be even greater, reaching an estimated 1.5–2°C by 2100. By the end of the century, carbon dioxide emissions under this scenario would be net negative, while major air pollutants could decrease by up to 85%.