Health
Climate, clean air action could prevent 144 million premature deaths by 2050 – Report
A new report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) has found that integrated action to tackle climate change and air pollution could prevent about 144 million premature deaths globally by 2050.
The report, titled Hidden Assets: The Economic and Health Case for Climate and Clean Air Action, said implementing 25 proven measures across energy, transport, industry, agriculture, household cooking and heating, and waste management could significantly reduce exposure to harmful air pollutants while also slowing climate change.
The measures include expanding renewable energy and energy efficiency, improving oil and gas operations, strengthening vehicle emission standards, promoting electric vehicles, adopting cleaner cooking and heating solutions, improving agricultural and livestock practices, reducing emissions from waste, and phasing down hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).
The finding comes against the backdrop of an already severe global air pollution crisis.
In March 2025, the World Health Organisation (WHO) disclosed that about seven million people die prematurely from air pollution annually, with 99 per cent of the world’s population breathing air that exceeds its recommended guideline limits.
Air pollution, a major health threat
The new UNEP and CCAC assessment estimated that the 25 measures could prevent 96 million premature deaths linked to exposure to ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5), 43 million deaths associated with household PM2.5 exposure and five million deaths linked to ozone by 2050.
The interventions could also avert an estimated 62 million cases of childhood asthma, 87 million heart attacks, 63 million cases of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), 56 million cases of diabetes, 45 million strokes, 36 million cases of dementia and seven million cases of lung cancer.
The projected health gains are significant because ambient PM2.5 and ozone alone caused an estimated 6.4 million premature deaths worldwide in 2025, according to the report. Household PM2.5 exposure contributed another two million deaths, including about 300,000 children.
PM2.5 refers to fine particles small enough to penetrate deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream, increasing the risk of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.
Without stronger intervention, the report warned that the proportion of the global population exposed to the most dangerous PM2.5 concentrations could rise from 27 per cent in 2025 to 34 per cent by 2050.
Africa’s burden
The assessment identified Africa as one of the regions that could record substantial health and economic gains from integrated action.
It said only about 20 per cent of Africa’s population had access to clean cooking fuels as of 2020, making household air pollution a particularly important concern on the continent.
For Sub-Saharan Africa, the report identified clean cooking as one of the most important near-term interventions because reducing household exposure to harmful smoke can deliver immediate health benefits.
Southern Africa was projected to record a benefit-cost ratio of 26:1, while Sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa could each generate about US$11 in benefits for every dollar invested.
The report said regions in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Africa could avoid damages equivalent to 3.5 to four per cent of regional Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2035 through implementation of the measures.
Health and economic gains
The economic case for acting is also significant.
The report found that every US$1 invested in the 25 measures could generate about US$15 in economic benefits.
Globally, the measures could generate economic benefits equivalent to 2.8 per cent of global GDP by 2035, rising to about 11.4 per cent by 2100.
The gains would come from reduced healthcare spending, increased labour productivity, greater workforce participation and avoided damage from climate change.
The climate benefits would also be substantial. The assessment projected that implementing the measures could avoid about 0.34°C of global warming by 2050 and approximately 1.4°C by 2100.
By 2050, the 25 measures could cut global carbon dioxide emissions by half, methane emissions by 60 per cent and black carbon and PM2.5 precursors, including sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, by 70 per cent.
The report said pursuing climate and air quality measures together produces greater benefits because the two problems share many of the same sources, including fossil fuel combustion, agricultural practices and industrial processes.
Delays threaten potential gains
Despite the potential benefits, the assessment warned that delayed action could result in preventable deaths, disease and economic losses.
It estimated that every year of delay could forgo more than 0.5 per cent of global GDP in benefits, equivalent to more than US$1.5 trillion in combined market and non-market value.
Globally, implementation of the 25 measures is expected to be delayed by about 7.5 to eight years on average, with institutional barriers accounting for about 2.4 years.
The report said the biggest obstacles were not necessarily technological but institutional, including fragmented decision-making, weak coordination between government agencies, inadequate financing and limited enforcement capacity.
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Nigeria’s role
Nigeria was cited as an example of a country taking steps towards integrated action through the inclusion of short-lived climate pollutants in its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC).
The report also cited Nigeria’s awareness-raising initiative on open burning and its Rural Women Energy Security Programme as examples of interventions capable of driving social and technological change.
Call to action
The assessment urged governments to integrate climate and clean air action into national economic planning and investment strategies, while increasing funding for institutional capacity, air quality monitoring, emissions inventories and enforcement.
It also recommended prioritising measures capable of producing rapid health gains, including clean cooking, methane controls targeting leaks, venting and flaring, organic waste management and transport measures.
The report said international partners should also mobilise finance for institutional strengthening, policy development, technology transfer and infrastructure investment, particularly in developing regions facing greater climate and pollution risks.
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Twenty-five art students of the Yaba College of Technology (Yabatech), Lagos State, have explored mental health and emotional well-being through art in a workshop aimed at encouraging conversations around mental health.
The two-day Health Story Lab, organised by the Yemisi Shyllon Museum of Art (YSMA), Pan-Atlantic University, in collaboration with the Art for Health Initiative (AHI), was held on 2 and 3 October in Lagos.
The programme, titled “What We Carry: Stories of Mental Health and Resilience”, brought together art, public health, mental health and storytelling to help the students explore how creative expression can be used to communicate experiences that may be difficult to discuss openly.
The workshop was held ahead of World Mental Health Day (WMHD), marked annually on 10 October.
Using art to discuss mental health
The students participated in sessions on public health and art, mental health and resilience, creative expression and art for social change.
According to the organisers, the discussions gave the students an opportunity to reflect on issues such as stress, uncertainty, social pressure, family expectations, grief, fear and hope.
The students subsequently developed creative concepts and received feedback from facilitators and their peers.
The students also examined the role of art in health communication during a session led by Olayinka Badmus, a public health strategist. The session explored how creative expression can communicate public health issues and make health conversations more accessible.
Another session, led by psychiatrist and psychotherapist Emmanuel Abayomi, focused on mental health and resilience, while Art Project Lead Temitope Oladeji guided students to express their experiences and emotions through art. The programme also included a museum tour focused on art for social change, led by a museum educator, Charles Udeh.
Solomon Nkwagu, Head of Corporate Communication and Visitors’ Services at YSMA, said the programme showed the potential of art to encourage conversations around public and mental health.
“They began to see the possibility of using their creative voices to start conversations around public and mental health, to tell stories that people can recognise themselves in, and perhaps even to create moments of reflection and healing for others. That shift in perspective was one of the most rewarding parts of the programme,” Mr Nkwagu said.
In her remarks, Chidera Aneke, Founder of AHI, said the initiative was designed to make health communication more participatory, culturally relevant and emotionally engaging.
Ms Aneke said health information could be communicated not only through statistics and clinical information but also through stories, images, symbols, emotions and lived experiences.
“We wanted to create a space where young artists could understand that health is not only communicated through statistics, campaigns or clinical information. It can also be communicated through stories, images, symbols, emotions and lived experiences,” she said.
“Working with the students showed us the possibilities that emerge when artists are given the knowledge, language and space to think about health through their own creative practice.”
Mental health burden
Mental health remains a significant public health concern in Nigeria.
A 2026 systematic review and meta-analysis of 53 studies involving more than 132,000 people estimated that 7.9 per cent of the general population had experienced suicidal thoughts, while 1.9 per cent had made suicidal plans and 1.3 per cent had attempted suicide.
The researchers said suicidal behaviour was more common among some groups, including adolescents, young people, and pregnant women.
This year’s World Mental Health Day theme is “Lived experiences heard: real voices, real change.”
The World Health Organisation (WHO) is calling for people who have experienced mental health conditions to have a meaningful role in shaping policies, services and decisions that affect them.
“World Mental Health Day is an opportunity to meaningfully engage with people with lived experience (PWLE) of mental health conditions and to recognise their knowledge as a vital form of expertise,” it noted.
READ ALSO: PT Health Watch: Why some pregnant women develop gestational diabetes
“This year’s campaign calls for their voices to shape the policies, services and decisions that affect their lives.”
From workshop to exhibition
The Yabatech students will develop artworks based on the issues explored during the workshop.
The works are expected to form a micro-exhibition in Lagos in November, giving members of the public an opportunity to engage with mental health and resilience through the perspectives of young artists.
The organisers said the initiative is intended to demonstrate how partnerships between the creative sector, museums and public health practitioners can create new ways of discussing mental health.
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Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, says 9.5 million children in 57 supported countries received no routine vaccine in 2025, despite gains in global immunisation.
The figure, described as the number of “zero-dose” children, was contained in Gavi’s 2025 Annual Progress Report, which reviewed the alliance’s 2021-2025 strategic period.
Gavi defines zero-dose children as infants who have not received the first dose of a diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis-containing vaccine by the end of their first year.
Number falls from 2021 peak
According to the report, the number of zero-dose children in 2025 was 600,000 lower than in 2024 and 25 per cent lower than the peak recorded in 2021 following disruptions to routine immunisation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, the figure remained four per cent above the 2019 baseline, partly because of continued growth in the number of children being born.
Gavi said children living in fragile, conflict-affected and humanitarian settings remain among those most likely to be missed by immunisation programmes.
Nigeria remains one of the countries with the highest number of zero-dose children. UNICEF estimated that about 2.2 million Nigerian children had never received a routine vaccine in 2025, the highest number in Africa.
Nigeria records gains in targeted areas
The report highlighted Nigeria, Ethiopia and Pakistan among countries where emerging data showed stronger immunisation coverage gains in sub-national areas that received greater Gavi focus and investment during the 2021-2025 period.
Gavi said the findings underscored the value of targeted, equity-focused investments in reaching communities that are being missed by routine immunisation.
The report also identified Nigeria among countries covered by Gavi’s Zero-Dose Learning Hubs, which examined what works and what does not in identifying and reaching zero-dose and under-immunised children.
The findings from Nigeria, Bangladesh, Mali and Uganda highlighted several issues, including gender-related barriers to immunisation.
73m children immunised in 2025
Despite the number of zero-dose children, Gavi said more than 73 million children were immunised through routine programmes with its support in 2025.
More than 351 million children were immunised during the 2021-2025 strategic period, “exceeding Gavi’s target of 300 million children.”
“By end 2025, Gavi-supported countries had immunised more than 1.3 billion unique children with Gavi support since 2000, exceeding our Investment Opportunity 2021-2025 commitment of more than 1.1 billion children immunised by 2025,” it noted.
Gavi said vaccination averted more than 2.2 million future deaths in 2025, bringing the total number of future deaths averted through its supported vaccination programmes to more than 7.8 million during the 2021-2025 period.
Generated economic benefits
The report said immunisation programmes generated more than $30 billion in economic benefits for Gavi-supported countries in 2025, the highest amount recorded in a single year.
The benefits were calculated from the costs of illness averted, including medical and associated costs, caretaker wages and productivity losses resulting from disability or death.
Gavi said the programmes generated more than $104 billion in economic benefits between 2021 and 2025 and more than $308 billion between 2000 and 2025.
Countries also contributed a record $301 million towards the co-financing of Gavi-supported vaccines in 2025, an 18 per cent increase from 2024.
About 80 per cent of the contribution came from domestic resources, while “approximately 20 per cent from low-interest loans from the World Bank.”
Gavi said countries had contributed a total of $2.2 billion towards vaccine co-financing since the policy was introduced in 2008.
More children
For its 2026 to 2030 strategic period, Gavi said it aims to protect another 500 million children through immunisation and avert between eight million and nine million future deaths.
READ ALSO:New TB vaccines could save 7.3m lives by 2050 – Gavi
The Alliance also targets more than $100 billion in economic benefits during the period. Gavi said it would place greater emphasis on reaching zero-dose and under-immunised children while strengthening the sustainability of national immunisation programmes.
In her comments, Gavi Chief Executive Officer, Sania Nishtar, said the results showed that immunisation generates benefits beyond preventing disease. “However, when it comes to immunisation we know that the return on investment extends far beyond health to supporting sustainable, inclusive economic growth,” Ms Nishtar said.
WHO Director-General, Tedros Ghebreyesus, also said immunisation delivers massive gains in lives saved and diseases prevented, but also in terms of economic benefits.
“Countries understand that the cost of failing to vaccinate is far too great, while the benefits extend across families, communities, economies and future generations,” Mr Ghebreyesus was quoted to have said.
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