Air pollution isn't only an environmental issue—it's a significant economic one too. As we face worsening air quality across India and Pakistan, especially in Delhi, the case for action has never been clearer. Our Global Managing Partner Gaurav Gupta reflects on the staggering economic costs of air pollution and the urgent need for investment to address this crisis. #AirPollution #SustainableSolutions #EconomicGrowth
In 2019 I had co-authored a report on the deep economic cost of air-pollution for the Indian economy (costing over 3% of GDP): https://lnkd.in/gj2iaNVd . It showed a different picture to the standard narrative that economic growth comes at the cost of air quality. Rather, severe air pollution was inhibiting growth in many parts of the country. In competitive markets, human capital and precision industries will move to cleaner environments. For remaining businesses, employees will fall sick or be less productive, tourists will make new plans and shoppers will stay off the streets. Even the solar panel on your roof will perform poorly on high pollution days. This is all common sense but we were able to analyse satellite data, retail data from pharmacies, HR data from companies etc to put some real numbers behind our common sense and the numbers were staggering. Watching the pollution crisis of the last week unfold across parts of India and Pakistan, especially Delhi, reminded me that we need to once again help convince all stakeholders to the air pollution crisis that the investments required to solve it, may very quickly pay for themselves. Jane Burston Dalberg #airpollution