Environmental degradation is taking a heavy toll and is costing India $80 billion annually. This translates to an equivalent of 5.7 per cent of India’s GDP.
The World Bank’s first time report assessing India’s environmental challenges attributes 23 per cent of child mortality annually directly to “environmental degradation”.
India’s environmental record is so poor that it is ranked 125th out of 132 countries surveyed while it has been given the ignominious ranking of last in the Air Pollution (effects on human health) index.
The report focuses on the serious health consequences being borne by the unregulated increase of particle pollution (from the burning of fossil fuels) which is presently costing the nation three per cent of India’s GDP.
Lead author of the report Muthukumara S. Mani said, “Outdoor air pollution accounts for the highest share at 1.7 per cent followed by a cost of indoor air pollution at 1.3 per cent.”
These high pollution levels have seen a substantial increase in deaths among the youth and productive adult population living in urban areas due to cardiopulmonary and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
A significant portion of diseases caused by poor water supply, sanitation and hygiene is being borne by children under five. Mani warned that the present mantra of “grow now and clean up later” will not be environmentally sustainable for India in the long run. “We believe that a low-emission, resource, efficient greening of the economy is possible at a very low cost in terms of GDP growth.”
The study looks at several scenarios to show a 10 per cent particulate emission reduction by 2030 that would decrease the GDP by 0.3 per cent while a 30 per cent particulate emission reduction will lower the GDP by just 0.7 per cent ($ 97 billion).
These will, however, result in significant health benefits which will reduce health damages from $105 billion (30 per cent) to $24 billion (10 per cent) practically compensating for the projected GDP loss.
The study, undertaken at the behest of the ministry of environment, used the computable general equilibrium (CGE) model, often used by economists to assess trade between two countries, and will be submitted to the Madras School of Economics for further research.