This UN report (https://bit.ly/4xnWUbG) finds that “every dollar invested [in actions to promote cleaner air] returns around 15 dollars, an internal rate of return of 60 per cent, with market returns exceeding costs within ten years.” Reducing exposure to air pollution pays off in better learning, higher productivity, reduced chronic disease, and longer healthier lives. The issue is that those paying the costs (industries and government and the people via taxes) and those reaping the benefits (individuals, different industries, and different parts of the government) are not the same people. The investment and positive returns are a society-wide phenomenon. That doesn’t mean that the benefits aren’t real, though. They are every bit as real and tangible as the costs of reducing pollution.
We shouldn’t be doom and gloom about this problem. Real, considerable progress has already been made in this area in most countries around the world, but there is a lot more that we can do that will benefit people today and for generations to come. It is largely up to government and international organizations to ensure the incentives are right.