How has this come about?

The main cause of air pollution is the combustion of fossil fuels. This accounts for 85% of fine particulate air pollution and for almost all airborne emissions of sulphur oxides and nitrogen oxides. Fossil fuel combustion is also the major source of the greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and the short-lived climate pollutants that are the major drivers of climate change1. Behind this global public health crisis lies an economic model that fails to link development to social or economic justice or to stewardship of the planet. It is beyond the scope of this paper to discuss how the devastation of the earth’s ecosystems is attributable to the worldwide obsession with economic growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP), due to its tight coupling with burning fossil fuels. (A paper exploring ways in which societies might bring about a just transition to sustainable economic growth is referenced below 5).

Multiple Injustices

For too long wealthy nations have plundered the earth’s natural and human resources through over-extraction, hyper-consumption and exploitation. At the other end of their operations, negative ‘externalities’ such as unwanted wastes are released into the environment by producers who have taken no responsibility or shown any concern for how, where or whom they may harm - let alone shown willing to take remedial or mitigating measures, including compensation for the damage caused.

Just as the benefits of the rich industrialised nations’ economic development have been inequitably distributed, both within or beyond their boundaries, so the impacts of environmental degradation, pollution and climate change have also not been evenly distributed. They fall disproportionately heavily on countries who have done least to cause them. Approximately 89% of premature deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries, the heaviest toll being borne in the WHO regions of South-East Asia and Western Pacific. Marginalised and disenfranchised communities and the indigenous peoples around the world are particularly affected. Often the most vulnerable groups are located near industrial plants, factories, roads and landfills, areas where pollution levels tend to be higher. Women and children, typically responsible for household chores such as cooking and collecting firewood, bear the greatest health burden from the use of polluting fuels and technologies in homes. Household air pollution led to an estimated 3.2 million deaths in 2020 6. The scarcity of access to political power of poorer communities limits their ability to demand better environmental quality. Prioritising economic interests over public health in many government policies perpetuates and even increases inequalities.

The role of colonialism in the present crisis should also be recognised. During colonial rule, European powers extracted valuable resources from African nations without regard for their long-term economic development. Colonialists saw “new” territories as places with unlimited resources to exploit in the service of early modern state-making and capitalist development. For example, British colonial rulers in Nigeria focused on extracting oil, positioning Nigeria as one of Africa’s major oil producers. Nigeria’s economy remains heavily reliant on oil exports and faces the consequences of price fluctuations in global markets. The UN Development Programme has documented the economic instability that accompanies raw material dependency, noting that countries lacking the infrastructure to process their resources into higher-value products struggle with poverty and limited economic diversification 3. Approximately 40% of Nigerians live below the national poverty line.

Other African governments point to the double standards of countries in the global north that have grown rich on the back of fossil fuel development, whose per capita emissions far outstrip that of developing nations and who continue to expand their own fossil fuel operations – while seeking to dial back their financing of fossil fuels in developing countries.