Talk:Sustainable energy/Air pollution statistics

1. UN Secretary General UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message for World Environment day (2019) "This polluted air kills some 7 million people each year, causes long-term health problems, such as asthma, and reduces children’s cognitive development. According to the World Bank, air pollution costs societies more than $5 trillion every year. Many air pollutants also cause global warming. Black carbon is one such example. Produced by diesel engines, burning trash and dirty cookstoves, it is extremely harmful when inhaled. Reducing emissions of such pollutants will not only improve public health, it could alleviate global warming by up to 0.5°C over the next few decades. Tackling air pollution therefore presents a double opportunity, as there are many successful initiatives that both clear the air and reduce greenhouse‑gas emissions, such as phasing out coal-fired power plants and promoting less polluting industry, transport and domestic fuels. With investments in renewable energy sources outstripping those in fossil fuels every year, the rise of clean energy is helping globally. Cleaner transport is also growing around the world."
2. WHO WHO releases country estimates on air pollution exposure and health impact (2016) "Some 3 million deaths a year are linked to exposure to outdoor air pollution. Indoor air pollution can be just as deadly. In 2012, an estimated 6.5 million deaths (11.6% of all global deaths) were associated with indoor and outdoor air pollution together. Nearly 90% of air-pollution-related deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries, with nearly 2 out of 3 occurring in WHO’s South-East Asia and Western Pacific regions... Major sources of air pollution include inefficient modes of transport, household fuel and waste burning, coal-fired power plants, and industrial activities."
3. IEA Energy and Air Pollution World Energy Outlook Special Report (2016), Foreword: "The number of deaths attributed to air pollution each year – 6.5 million deaths – is, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), much greater than the number from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and road injuries combined. Air pollution also brings major costs to the economy and damage to the environment. Energy production and use is the most important source of air pollution coming from human activity."
4. UNDP website: "air pollution is a major global health hazard that affects almost everybody alive today, and kills seven million people a year... Low and middle-income countries bear the brunt of pollution"
5. WHO, Ambient air pollution: a global assessment of exposure and burden of disease (2016) p. 15: "Air pollution represents the biggest environmental risk to health. In 2012, one out of every nine deaths was the result of air pollution-related conditions. Of those deaths, around 3 million are attributable solely to ambient (outdoor) air pollution. Citizens in Africa, Asia or the Middle East breathe much higher levels of air pollutants that those in living other parts of the world."
6. The 2020 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: responding to converging crises (2021): "More than 1 million deaths occur every year as a result of air pollution from coal-fired power, and some 390000 of these deaths were a result of particulate pollution in 2018...Economic recovery packages that prioritise outdated forms of energy and transport that are fossil fuel intensive will have unintended side- effects, unnecessarily adding to the 7 million people that die every year from air pollution...Some 91% of deaths from ambient air pollution occur in low-income and middle-income countries.
7. WHO website Ambient air pollution accounts for an estimated 4.2 million deaths per year due to stroke, heart disease, lung cancer and chronic respiratory diseases. Around 91% of the world’s population lives in places where air quality levels exceed WHO limits. While ambient air pollution affects developed and developing countries alike, low- and middle-income countries experience the highest burden, with the greatest toll in the WHO Western Pacific and South-East Asia regions.
8. STATE OF GLOBAL AIR/2020 ". In 2019, air pollution ranked 4th among major mortality risk factors globally, accounting for nearly 6.75

million early deaths and 213 million years of healthy life lost. Ambient PM2.5 accounted for 4.14 million deaths (118 million years of healthy life lost); household air pollution accounted for 2.31 million deaths (91.5 million years of healthy life lost), and ozone accounted for about 365,000 early deaths (6.21 million years of healthy life lost). Taken together, these forms of air pollution accounted for more than 1 in 9 deaths worldwide in 2019."

1. WHO Burning Opportunity: Clean Household Energy for Health, Sustainable Development, and Wellbeing of Women and Children (2018) p. IX: "Household air pollution is the single most important environmental health risk factor worldwide. Based on estimates of solid fuel use for cooking in 2012, exposure to HAP causes 4.3 million premature deaths each year... Globally, household energy is an important source of outdoor air pollution as well. HAP from cooking is responsible for 12% of global ambient fine particulate matter pollution (PM 2.5 ), and is estimated to cause some 500 000 of the 3.9 million premature deaths each year attributable to outdoor air pollution."
2. WHO Preventing disease through healthy environments: A global assessment of the burden of disease from environmental risks" (2016) A review of interventions and events that led to the reduction of air pollution showed that most of these interventions have been associated with health benefits, mainly via respiratory and cardiovascular mortality/morbidity. Examples for reduction of cardiovascular mortality include the reduction of sulphur content in fuel in Hong Kong in 1990, and the Irish coal ban in 1990. Other interventions have shown significant reductions in various air pollutants related to respiratory and cardiovascular health impacts, such as the European air emission policies (1990–2005), the London Congestion Charging Scheme and the Stockholm Congestion Charging Trial (Henschel et al, 2012). Many more approaches have been used to reduce air pollution levels, such as the replacement of older diesel vehicles, increased use of public transport, industrial emission control, and use of modern energy sources for domestic cooking and heating."
3. 2019 review article "Worldwide, ambient air pollution and household air pollution are estimated to be responsible for approximately 6.5 million premature deaths annually.35 Recent analyses suggest even higher numbers — nearly 9 million deaths annually associated with the present levels of ambient fine particulate air pollution36 and more than 1 million deaths associated with tropospheric ozone,37 with increased mortality even when pollution levels are lower than those required by current air-quality standards.38"..."The predominant sources of ambient air pollution vary according to country. For example, in the United States, it is estimated that approximately 58% of the excess deaths are attributable to the use of fossil fuel and arise particularly from traffic, power production, and industry.39 In India, where the use of solid biofuel for residential heating and cooking is widespread, approximately 26% of excess deaths are due to fossil-fuel use, but this percentage is likely to rise in the future with the escalating demand for energy and increased domestic use of clean fuels. Strategies to provide universal access to clean, zero-carbon energy have great potential to reduce this death toll while also reducing the risks associated with dangerous climate change."