A new report from the World Bank highlights the truly staggering annual cost of pollution in the MENA Region.
Air pollution is costing the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region countries as much as 2% of total economic output per year, a World Bank report said, which said that MENA nations should curb fossil-fuel subsidies, provide cleaner transport and create markets for emissions.
The report, Blue Skies, Blue Seas: Air Pollution, Marine Plastics and Coastal Erosion in the Middle East and North Africa, focuses on the degradation of “blue” natural assets in the MENA region (clean air, health seas and stable coastlines) and offers policy recommendations to reverse the threat to this natural capital.
Air pollution levels in MENA’s largest cities are among the highest in the world, the report said, with the average urban resident breathing in air that exceeds by more than 10 times the level of pollutants considered safe by the WHO. Air pollution causes about 270,000 deaths a year (more than deaths from traffic accidents, diabetes, malaria TB, HIV/AIDS and acute hepatitis combined) and the average MENA resident is ill at least 60 days in his/her lifetime due to exposure to elevated air pollution levels. The economic costs of air pollution are immense – around $141 billion per year, or 2% of regional GDP.
“Polluted skies and seas are costly to the health, social and economic wellbeing of millions of people in the Middle East and North Africa region,” said Ferid Belhaj, World Bank Vice President for the Middle East and North Africa. “As countries recover from COVID-19, there is an opportunity to change course and choose a greener, bluer and more sustainable growth path that has fewer emissions and less environmental degradation,” he added.
Bloomberg, which shared and published a story on the report, added that the findings “will likely add to growing interest in green and sustainability-linked bonds and loans in the region, where offerings jumped two-and-a-half fold to almost $19 billion in 2021 from the year before.”
MENA’s seas have also become more polluted, and the average resident contributes more than 6 kg of plastic waste into the region’s seas each year, the highest level globally.