The cost of air pollution : strengthening the economic case for action

This study sets out to calculate the economic costs of premature mortality from air pollution to strengthen the business case for governments to act ambitiously in reducing pollution. The costs of pollution to society are many, but a full accounting is beyond the scope of this report. Instead, it will focus on what many studies have shown to be the largest and most damaging cost of pollution: premature mortality. The number of deaths each year attributable to air pollution makes a compelling case for reducing pollution. Valuing the costs of premature deaths associated with pollution helps to further highlight the severity of the problem. Governments face a wide array of competing development challenges, and monetizing the costs of pollution can help them decide how to allocate scarce resources to better the lives of their citizens. Monetary values can also help hem measure the benefits of policies to tackle pollution and, when compared with costs of implementation, to devise cost-effective air quality management plans. This study also presents the results of 2013 Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD 2013 Collaborators 2015). The GBD measures illnesses and premature deaths from a multitude of causes and risk factors around the world, including air pollution. It offers the most extensive estimates of exposure and trends in air pollution levels and their associated burden of disease. The GBD effort dates to the early 1990s when the World Bank commissioned the original GBD study for feature in its World Development Report 1993: Investing in Health. Since 2010, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington, Seattle, has steered the GBD study, with the latest set of estimates for 2013