In addition to economic effects, pollution causes the premature deaths of more than 9 million people around the world each year.

Air pollution alone accounts for 7 million of these deaths - to put this staggering number into perspective, this is equivalent to the number of people that have died from COVID-19 since March 2020 dying each year. 

The estimated cost of the health damage caused by air pollution amounts to $8.1 trillion a year, equivalent to 6.1% of global GDP.

Pollution is undermining the competitiveness and growth of economies today and setting economies up to fail tomorrow.

UNICEF and Pure Earth estimate that 1 in 3 children – or up to 800 million globally – have blood lead levels at or above 5 micrograms per deciliter when any lead disrupts a child’s neurological development and can cause premature death.

And it’s not just pollution’s impact on economies that is wreaking havoc; pollution is degrading ecosystems on which the wealth of the poor depends, further eroding the ability of communities to get out of poverty.  

On both land and sea, our habitats and ecosystems become less resilient to climate change in the face of high pollution levels.

Plastics pollution is perhaps the most visible example. The unmanaged disposal of plastic destroys biodiversity and pollutes the food chain.

As the world takes strong action to reverse the impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss, tackling the pollution crisis remains of equal importance and urgency.

World Bank study found that a 20% decrease in particularly harmful form of air pollution, is associated with a 16% increase in employment growth rate and a 33% increase in labor productivity.