Pollution

Global pollution is rising due to rapid economic growth, population increases, and insufficient environmental management. This poses serious health risks for people and ecosystems, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.  Contributing to these challenges, the global economy relies on deeply intertwined supply chains, sustained by more than 100 billion tons of raw materials entering the system each year. Intensive material consumption depletes natural resources and causes negative environmental impacts at every stage of the product lifecycle. Global waste is expected to increase to 3.4 billion tons by 2050.

Pollution of all types hinders development outcomes. Exposure to air pollution, water pollution, and hazardous chemicals and wastes like mercury, lead and persistent organic pollutants (POPs)  causes debilitating and fatal illnesses, creates harmful living conditions, and , and destroys ecosystems. Pollution undermines sustainable economic growth, exacerbates poverty and inequality in both urban and rural areas, and significantly contributes to climate change. Poor people, who cannot afford to protect themselves from the negative impacts of pollution, end up suffering the most.

Pollution is the largest environmental cause of disease and premature death.  It is estimated to be several times more deaths than from AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria combined. Global health crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, are reminders of the strong linkages between environment and health and of the need to address such linkages systematically.

Air pollution is the leading environmental risk to health, causing 7 million premature deaths each year. More than 90 percent of deaths caused by air pollution occur in low- and middle- income countries. In individual countries, the economic burden of pollution associated with premature mortality and morbidity is also significant, equivalent to 5 to 14 percent of countries' GDPs. A recent World Bank publication  highlighted that outdoor air pollution alone kills roughly 5.7 million people globally each year with economic costs equivalent to nearly 5 percent of global GDP, due to its impacts on health, productivity, and life expectancy. Taking a “business as usual” approach will not be able to stop the upward trends of these negative impacts in coming years.

Recent evidence points to the similar devastation caused by exposure to harmful chemicals, such as lead. It is estimated that in 2019, more than 5.5 million adults died from cardiovascular disease were associated with exposure to lead. 90% of these deaths occurred in lower- and middle-income countries. In the same year, children younger than 5 years of age lost 765 million IQ points, averaging nearly 5.9 IQ points per child in LMICs. Lead exposure may cost countries $6 trillion, equivalent to 6.9% of global GDP.

Addressing pollution from its sources presents an opportunity to enhance economic growth, improve resource efficiency, and create employment opportunities.  Pollution management offers no-regrets options that can alleviate poverty, boost shared prosperity, and deliver healthier and more productive lives for millions of people.

Last Updated: Apr 18, 2025

The World Bank Group supports developing countries in reducing pollution, promoting clean development, and fostering a more circular economy for healthier lives and better livelihood opportunities. The Bank provides technical assistance, financing, and knowledge products that cover:

• promoting environmental sustainability through circular economy, cleaner production and pollution prevention; and
• strengthening environmental institutions by helping countries improve pollution and chemicals management, environmental governance, regulation, and enforcement;
• improving air quality through the reduction of air pollution;
• improving water quality, both in freshwater and in the ocean;
• integrating management of waste, including hazardous waste management and remediation of contaminated sites;
• reducing short-lived pollutants;
• disclosure of environmental information for effective public participation in environmental management and sustainable economic development.

Among others, the Bank supports the sound management of chemicals and the implementation of the Global Framework on Chemicals.  to better understand the mechanisms and costs of chemical pollution (e.g. a recently published report on lead pollution) and to identify, test and roll out prevention, mitigation and remediation measures.

The World Bank is also placing a strong emphasis on marine litter management. There is broad consensus on the set of solutions: such as stopping leakages through improved waste management and reductions in the upstream production of waste, including  single-use plastics.

Industrial activities often lead to an increase in exposure to chemicals and toxic materials and polluted lands. Though this is well known, lack of data tends to bring lack of attention. Accordingly, the World Bank has worked to increase identification of toxic sites and research the health and economic impacts of these sites.

Providing greater clarity and evidence about the links between environmental pollution, economic impact, and health is crucial to empowering officials to make decisions to lessen the negative environmental outcomes of economic development activities.

Traditionally air, water and land-based pollution has been tackled after the fact, through clean-up efforts, but the solution must be in addressing its root causes. These lie in the dominant “take, make, waste” linear economy, fueled by large amounts of cheap, accessible energy and other resources, and producing goods that are designed to be disposable. The circular economy is a redesign of this approach, where industrial and natural resource-based production systems are restorative and regenerative by intention. The Bank is promoting a circular economy, sustainable chemistry, resource efficiency, and sustainable markets in various sectors (such as textile and apparel, agribusiness, and construction materials) and eco-industrial parks (including industrial symbiosis and water circularity). 

Analytical work

Working jointly with client countries, the Bank also carries out analytical work to identify environmental priorities for poverty alleviation, with a focus on low and middle-income countries. Recent analytical work conducted by the Bank assessed the global estimates of the health burden of outdoor air pollution and its implications. Another study addressed opportunities and challenges for air quality data gaps. Other analytical work has assessed the performance of satellite for air quality measurements, as well as the health implications of exposure to natural dust and chemical constituents and sources of fine particulate matter. In addition, interventions for reducing air pollution have been developed along with work that addresses the linkages between pollution, health, climate change and fiscal solutions.

Analytical work has also been instrumental to help set environmental priorities, identifying the categories of environmental degradation that are more closely linked with poverty reduction and economic growth. This approach has been applied in Yucatan (Mexico), and Lao PDR, where analytical work has informed investments, policy reforms, and capacity building interventions to address environmental priorities.  

Last Updated: Apr 19, 2025

Air quality

With support from the World Bank’s $1 billion loans for Innovative Financing for Air Pollution Control and Hebei Air Pollution Prevention and Control, the concentration of PM_2.5 was reduced by nearly 40 percent across the Hebei province of China between 2013 and 2017, and the use of clean heating reduced annual carbon dioxide emissions by six million tons, equivalent to taking 1.2 million gasoline passenger vehicles off the road per year.

Over the last five decades, the World Bank has provided nearly $4.4 billion in financing to the Mexico City Metropolitan Area for projects spanning air quality management, transportation, energy, and other sectors – contributing to decreases in particulate matter pollution by more than 70% during this period. As part of this assistance, the Mexico Environmental Sustainability and Urban Resilience Development Policy Finance supported policy reforms to standardize air quality monitoring, measurement, and communication to the public about air pollution-related health risks in cities and the actions they can take to reduce their exposure to such risks.

Water pollution

The Bank is assisting Argentina with an ambitious integrated plan for the cleanup and sustainable development of the Matanza-Riachuelo River basin. The project is building a large wastewater collector on the left bank of the Riachuelo River, which will transport sewage to different treatment plants, thereby avoiding direct discharge into the river. The project is also constructing an 11.5-kilometer outfall that will lead to Río de la Plata. Additionally, the Integral Sanitation Plan will expand and/or build several treatment plants throughout the basin and construct waterfall aeration stations. These large-scale engineering works are crucial for the health of 7 million people living in the area, of whom at least 10 percent live below the national poverty line.

In Romania, under the World Bank-supported Integrated Nutrient Pollution Control Project rural communities around the country are being equipped with essential tools needed to improve livestock manure management and prevent nitrates and other dangerous minerals from contaminating Romania’s soil and water supplies.

Management of Land-based Pollution and Remediation of Hazardous Waste Sites

The Montenegro Industrial Waste Management and Cleanup Project is helping to remediate industrial waste disposal sites and ensure that hazardous waste from industries is disposed in compliance with Montenegrin and European Union legislation.  The project supports strengthening of the regulatory framework and development of infrastructure to provide environmentally acceptable solutions for waste management.

In Pakistan the Bank is financing a green growth project in Punjab that has included the implementation of waste management interventions. The project has supported reforms to modernize the legal and regulatory framework and promote investments in cleaner technologies at the provincial level to reduce air and water pollution from sectors such as brick making and leather tanning.

Last Updated: Apr 19, 2025