Thu. Mar 28th, 2024
India

A special report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) reveals, “India can get massive health benefits worth $3- $8 trillion by making efforts to limit global warming to 1.5°C by the end this century.

The report titled ‘Health & Climate Change’ was released at the UN climate conference in Poland.

It is estimated that over 1 million lives can be saved every year across the globe by battling air pollution alone by 2050 and by meeting the goals of the 2015 Paris agreement.

The value of the health gains is estimated to be around twice the cost of the policies.

Also China and India are likely to enjoy the largest gains. China is expected to gain $0.27-2.31 trillion by pursuing the 1.5°C global warming target.

According to the report, “The most recent evidence indicates that the gains for health to be derived from scenarios that meet the Paris goal for reduced climate warming would more than cover the financial cost of mitigation at global level and would cover it several times over in countries such as China and India.”

Over two million deaths occur prematurely in India due to pollution, accounting for 25% of the global deaths due to air pollution. China follows India by registering around 1.8 million pollution-related deaths.

India’s toxic air is the leading cause of premature deaths of 1,10,000 children, highest in the world in the category of children under five years of age. This can be attributed to their exposure to ambient air pollution of particulate matter 2.5.

Globally, exposure to air pollution causes seven million deaths every year, resulting in $5.11 trillion in welfare losses globally, nearly doubling the losses in 1990, the latest assessment shows.

The report said,“The Paris Agreement goals of limiting global warming to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels, with an absolute ceiling well below 2.0 °C, are essential to protect health in the medium to long term.”

“The Paris Agreement is potentially the strongest health agreement of this century,” said  Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO.

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