$3 trillion: Global spend on health care due to air pollution
Countries have spent an estimated $3 trillion on health care as a result of air pollution. This is over 5% of GDP in China, India, Bangladesh, Serbia, Romania and Hungary among other countries.
This was revealed in the ‘The Paris Effect: How the climate agreement is reshaping the global economy’, a report released by global consultancy SYSTEMIQ. The report assesses the pace and scale of change since the Paris Agreement on climate change was signed by many countries in 2015. It also synthesizes existing research and analysis of the past five years’ economic, social and political trends.
The experts who did the analysis said that shifting to electric vehicles and reducing the total number of cars on the road can dramatically improve air pollution, which is a driver of significant health costs. “A minimal increase in pollution leads to an 11% increase in a country’s rate of mortality related to Covid-19,” the report says.
The analysis reveals that since the Paris Agreement, progress on low-carbon solutions and markets has been faster. “Low-carbon solutions are combining with digitization to restructure economies.
