Recommendations for donors 

Air pollution damages our health and climate, while undermining sustainable development and deepening global inequities. Targeted, sustained and equitable financing is crucial to protect the most vulnerable regions and communities. 

Clean air is affordable, achievable and delivers immediate benefits for health, climate and economies. Targeted action could save more than two million lives annually by 2040 and add up to $2.4 trillion each year to the global economy, according to the World Bank. 

Air quality funding recommendations for governments and DFIs 

International development funders should: 

• Integrate clean air as an explicit objective across development and climate projects. The Air Quality Toolkit for Development Finance Institutions is a useful tool for integrating air quality into project design and implementation. 

• Make air quality an institutional priority, embedding it into policies, staff training and project design. 

• Target funding to underserved areas, especially in Africa, where air pollution is rising fastest.  

• Strengthen cross-donor engagements and collaborate on the way air quality funding is tracked. Funders should create opportunities to learn from peers, identify synergies and avoid duplication. They should also take a cross-sectoral, airshed approach to tackling air pollution. 

• Prioritise action on black carbon, a super pollutant with major climate and health impacts. 

• Catalyse private sector participation in air quality projects. International development funders have a key role to play to de-risk investments to mobilise private sector resources and support funding at scale.  

• End funding for fossil fuel-prolonging projects, prioritising a full, fair and fast phase out of funding for fossil fuels as soon as possible. 

Read the report for our full recommendations: