Improving air quality could boost the UK economy by £1.6 billion annually
According to a new, major study by CBI Economics commissioned by the Clean Air Fund, meeting the World Health Organization’s air quality guidelines could support the UK economy with £1.6 billion annually Tweet This!. This would come as a result of reducing premature deaths, sickness absence and lower productivity at work.
More specifically, reducing pollution to WHO levels could prevent 17,000 premature deaths every year. Deaths of people of working age.
At the same time, by meeting the WHO’s guidelines, businesses would not lose 3 million working days per annum because of workers becoming ill or taking care of sick children, as a consequence of air pollution.
The report is widely regarded as the first analysis of the economic benefits of reducing pollution levels.
In addition to the UK economy, the NHS and social care budgets would also achieve savings from treating fewer patients with diseases related to pollution.
Jane Burston, Executive Director of the Clean Air Fund, said: “We know clean air makes us healthier, but our research shows it can make us all wealthier too. If businesses and government work together to ensure clean air for all, we can protect our health and re-energise the economy at this critical time. Ministers must commit to binding targets to cut air pollution in line with WHO guidelines by 2030.”
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This article is based on published information by the Clean Air Fund. For the sake of readability, we did not use brackets or ellipses. However, we made sure that the extra or missing words did not change the publication’s meaning. If you would like to quote these written sources from the original please revert to the following link: