Where is funding going?

Countries

Total and outdoor air quality funding remains concentrated in a small group of countries

Over two thirds of funding went to ten countries, with rankings largely unchanged in the medium term (see table below). The same countries broadly remained the top recipients between 2019-2023 and 2020-2024, although their rankings shifted.

India was the largest recipient country over four of the past five years, attracting 20% of total air quality funding over 2020-2024, while Bangladesh moved from third to fifth following a larger relative decline in funding between 2023 and 2024. Indonesia moved up from thirteenth to ninth place, driven by $0.9 billion from JICA in 2024 for the first phase of Jakarta’s mass rapid transit line development.

Just three countries receive over half of outdoor air quality funding across 2020-2024: The Philippines, India, and Bangladesh collectively received almost 56% of outdoor air quality funding in 2020-2024. These countries maintained their top five positions from the previous period (2019-2023), along with Egypt and China, broadly reflecting the alignment of international funding with their national air quality priorities. All but Egypt have explicit national air quality policies and targets, including on reducing particulate matter and emissions from transport, industry, and energy.^1,2,3,4 In Egypt, air quality is less explicitly prioritised, although national climate policies target emissions reductions in sectors such as transport that are also major sources of air pollution.

Brazil became the ninth-largest recipient in 2020-2024, up from 21st in 2019-2023, alongside increased domestic policy attention to air quality. Recent actions include establishing a National Air Quality Policy in 2024, as well as a broader policy focus on clean energy and cleaner transport decarbonisation through its 2023 Ecological Transformation Plan and 2024 G20 Presidency.

Some countries rose in the rankings due to large, one-off projects, but long-term pollution reduction requires long-term commitment. Indonesia moved from being the 50th to the 6th largest recipient country for outdoor air quality funding over the 2020–2024 period, driven by around $0.5 billion covering the AFOLU (Agriculture, Forestry, and Other Land Use), cross-sectoral, and water and wastewater sectors, funded by ADB. This was one of only four relevant projects approved in the country in 2024. Although such projects can substantially increase flows in a given year, achieving long-term improvements in air quality requires predictable, sustained investment to strengthen policy implementation, institutional capacity, monitoring systems, and clean technology deployment.⁵ Because air pollution is driven by multiple sectors, progress also requires long-term, coordinated investment that supports regulatory implementation and mobilises private capital alongside public funding.

Highly polluted countries continue to receive limited air quality funding

Five of the world’s ten most polluted countries received less than $2 per person for air quality in 2024. Air quality funding remains misaligned with pollution exposure and broader climate vulnerability. In 2024, India was the only country among the world’s most polluted⁶ to receive a substantial share of global air quality funding, accounting for 19% of total air quality funding. Each of the other highly polluted countries received less than 2.5% of global financing. On a per capita basis, many countries with high PM_2.5 concentrations received limited resources to address air pollution and improve air quality, despite facing substantial health impacts and high climate vulnerability.

Case study: Türkiye

Regions

South Asia receives the largest share of global total air quality funding

$34.4 billion (28%) of total air quality funding from 2020 to 2024 went to South Asia. The projects driving South Asia’s leadership in total air quality funding were predominantly railway and mass transit projects in India and Bangladesh, with these two countries attracting 95% of the region’s flows. The largest ten projects, which accounted for over a quarter of all funding for the region, were all mass transit projects in India. Two JICA-funded loans totalling $5 billion to build a high-speed rail line between Mumbai and Ahmedabad accounted for 14% of the region’s total air quality financing in 2020-2024.

Sub-Saharan Africa saw large increases in total air quality funding

The region was the only one to sustain consistent year-on-year growth in total air quality funding between 2020 and 2024. Sub-Saharan Africa’s total air quality flows increased from a low base of less than $1 billion in 2020 to $3.8 billion in 2024, despite wider decreases in total air quality funding globally (see our analysis of funding trends). This shows some resilience to global trends, though the scale of finance remains far smaller than in leading regions.

South Africa was the top country within the region in 2020-2024, receiving 19% of funding. Almost half of this was for the Transnet III project from the African Development Bank, for the expansion and improvements to the domestic freight rail network. Tanzania, the region’s second-largest recipient, received only 9% of the region’s total air quality funding, showing that these financial flows are relatively dispersed, with most countries still receiving relatively low volumes.

References

¹Government of the Philippines. 2000. Implementing Rules and Regulations of the Philippine Clean Air Act of 1999 (Republic Act No. 8749).

²Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), Government of India. 2019. National Clean Air Programme.

³Department of Environment, Government of Bangladesh. 2026. National Air Quality Management Plan of Bangladesh.

⁴State Council of the People’s Republic of China. 2023. ‘China publishes action plan to improve air quality’.

⁵World Bank. 2025. Accelerating Access to Clean Air for a Liveable Planet.

⁶University of Chicago. 2023. Air Quality Life Index.