The key environmental factors highlighted in the report include:
● Air pollution, which kills 7 million people across the world each year. Of these, 4.3 million are down to household air pollution, particularly among women and young children in developing
countries.
● Lack of access to clean water and sanitation, which results in 842,000 people dying from diarrhoeal diseases every year, 97 per cent of which in developing countries. Diarrhoeal diseases are the 3rd leading cause of deaths of children younger than 5, representing 20 per cent of all deaths in children
under five years.
● Chemical exposure: Some 107,000 people die annually from exposure to asbestos, and 654,000
died from exposure to lead in 2010.
● Natural disasters: Since the first UN Climate Change Conference in 1995, 606,000 lives have been lost and 4.1 billion people have been injured, left homeless or in need of emergency assistance
as a result of weather-related disasters.
While outlining the problems, the report also showed how investments in a
healthy environment can bring multiple benefits.
● The successful phase-out of nearly 100 ozone-depleting substances (ODS) means that up to 2 million cases of skin cancer and many millions of eye cataracts may be prevented each year by 2030
thanks to the healing ozone layer.
● Benefits from eliminating lead in gasoline on a global scale have been estimated at $2.45 trillion per year, or 4 per cent of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP), saving an estimated 1 million premature
deaths per year.
● Implementing proven, cost-effective measures to reduce emissions of short-lived climate pollutants such as black carbon and methane could reduce global warming by 0.5°C by the middle of the century, and save 2.4 million lives a year from reduced air pollution by 2030.
● Investments in preventative workplace health programmes of around $18-60/worker can reduce sick leave absences by 27 per cent, while the return on investment in water and sanitation services is
between $5 and $28 per dollar.
To achieve such benefits, the report recommends four integrated approaches:
● DETOXIFY: Remove harmful substances from and/or mitigate their impact on the environment
in which people live and work.
● DECARBONIZE: Reduce the use of carbon fuels and thereby emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) through renewables. Over their life-cycle, the pollution-related human health and environmental
impacts of solar, wind and hydropower are 3 to 10 times lower than fossil-fuel power plants.
● DECOUPLE RESOURCE USE AND CHANGE LIFESTYLES: Generate the necessary economic activity and value to sustain the world’s population with lower resource use, less waste, less pollution and less
environmental destruction.
● ENHANCE ECOSYSTEM RESILIENCE AND PROTECTION OF THE PLANET’S NATURAL SYSTEMS: Build the capacity of the environment, economies and societies to anticipate, respond to and recover from disturbances and shocks through protection and conservation of genetic diversity and terrestrial, coastal and marine biodiversity; strengthening ecosystem restoration; and reducing pressures from
livestock production and logging on natural ecosystems.
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