Air pollution from burning fossil fuels – primarily coal, oil and gas – contributes to an estimated 4.5-million deaths each year worldwide, as well as to economic losses of about 3.3% of global gross domestic product, new research from Greenpeace Southeast Asia and the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) shows.

“There is no longer room to dispute the devastating costs of burning fossil fuels, not just for our rapidly heating planet, but also for our health. The air pollution from fossil fuels is a toxic death-pill as millions of lives across the world are lost prematurely every year, and our risk of stroke, lung cancer and asthma increases due to air pollution,” Greenpeace Africa climate and energy campaigner Bukelwa Nzimande said in a statement issued on Wednesday.

Key findings of the research include that an estimated 62 000 asthma-related emergency room visits in South Africa are attributable to PM2.5 and ozone exposure, and an estimated 14 000 preterm births in South Africa are attributable to PM2.5 exposure.

PM2.5 refers to atmospheric particulate matter (PM) that has a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometres. Owing to their small size, they stay longer in the air than heavier particles, and are likelier to be inhaled.

Moreover, an estimated 13 000 premature deaths were attributable to fossil fuel-related air pollution in South Africa in 2018; while an estimated 40 000 children die before their fifth birthdays globally because of exposure to PM2.5 pollution from fossil fuels, primarily in low-income countries.

The report indicates that nitrogen dioxide, a byproduct of fossil fuel combustion in vehicles, power plants and factories, is linked to about four-million new cases of asthma in children each year, with about 16-million children worldwide living with asthma owing to exposure to NO₂ pollution from fossil fuels.

Also, PM2.5 air pollution from fossil fuels is said to contribute to an estimated 1.8-billion days of work absence owing to illness each year worldwide, equating to estimated yearly economic losses of R1.5-trillion.

Greenpeace and CREA also created the first-ever live cost of air pollution counter, which uses real-time air visual data to calculate the cost of air pollution in cities around the world.

Greenpeace Africa said it expected South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to highlight the crisis and its myriad implications for the country’s economy in his State of the Nation Address on Thursday evening.

“The economic impacts of air pollution from fossil fuels is important to consider in the context of Eskom’s massive debt crisis, which amounts to over R400-billion,” the organisation said.

According to the research, the estimated total cost of air pollution from fossil fuels in South Africa is R94.7-billion a year.

Greenpeace Africa posited that phasing out fossil fuels would result in financial and health benefits.

It cited a study published by the US Environmental Protection Agency, which indicates that every $1 invested under the US Clean Air Act yielded at least $30 in return.