Remarks: Co-Chair of the Global Economic Assessment of Climate and Clean Air Elliott Harris at BAQ 2026

Distinguished colleagues, partners, and friends,

Thank you, and good morning.

It is a pleasure to join you today at the Better Air Quality Conference. Your region has made great progress in improving air quality, but of course, much remains to be done.

Air pollution and climate change are often discussed as separate crises. In reality, they are deeply interconnected, and so are their solutions.

Super pollutants such as methane, black carbon, hydrofluorocarbons, nitrous oxide, and tropospheric ozone are responsible for roughly half of current warming and are major contributors to air pollution.

Reducing these super pollutants is the fastest and most effective way to slow warming in the near term while rapidly improving air quality and health outcomes.

This is action that pays off now.

Air quality improves within months. Hospital visits decline. Workers lose fewer days to illness. Children breathe easier. Clean air solutions are climate solutions, and the economic returns are rapid.

Today, I have the privilege of serving as Co-Chair of the forthcoming UN Global Economic Assessment on climate and clean air, which will be released in the middle of this year. This assessment represents a major step forward in how we understand the costs of pollution and the benefits of action, providing important insights into the economic dimension of the interlinked crises of climate change and air pollution.

For too long, we have measured the costs of air pollution and climate change too narrowly, focusing mainly on market impacts or on long-term climate damages that unfold over decades. That approach understates the real economic burden we are already carrying.

This assessment deliberately brings together market impacts and non-market costs. It places a monetary value on lost productivity, lost workdays, long periods of illness, reduced quality of life, and premature death. These are real economic losses. They simply do not appear in GDP.

One of the key innovations in this assessment is the integration of increased morbidity – the incidence of the pollution-related chronic illness -- alongside mortality. In the past, we largely counted premature deaths and treated them as people leaving the workforce. In reality, people often live for years with illness before they die. Their productivity declines. Family members miss work to provide care. Health systems absorb rising costs. These burdens accumulate over time and weigh heavily on households and national economies. The hidden costs of inaction are massive and continuous. 

By combining illness and premature death in the analysis, we capture a far more accurate picture of the economic damage pollution creates. The economic damage is huge, but so too are the benefits of avoiding these losses through prompt and integrated action

In many regions, the value of the avoided non-market health and productivity losses exceeds the cost of pollution control itself. And the benefits of prompt integrated action on air quality and climate can begin to materialize within a few years, and not only after half a century.

Cutting super pollutants delivers some of the fastest economic returns available in climate policy. Cleaner air means fewer hospital visits, lower medical spending, higher worker productivity, and healthier communities within months. That is why I say this is action that pays off now.

The science is clear. The economics are clear. The real obstacle is implementation.

The assessment looks closely at barriers to implementation, including technological gaps, financing constraints, institutional fragmentation, and political challenges. These barriers can delay policy implementation by as much as eight or nine years. The report offers guidance on how to overcome these barriers and reduce implementation delays.

Political momentum and partnerships can be critical here.

The Climate and Clean Air Coalition is designed to help close this implementation gap, through facilities like its Super Pollutant Country Action Accelerator, and through its Technology and Economic Assessment Panel, the CCAC identifies scalable and affordable solutions and translates science into practical investment pathways. The CCAC’s economic and agrifood systems assessments connect climate and clean air action to food security, livelihoods, and national development strategies.

Ladies and Gentlemen: The encouraging reality is that action to reduce air pollution advances climate stability, public health, food security, productivity, and economic resilience at the same time.

It delivers visible results that people can feel in their daily lives and this relatively quickly, not only in fifty years. The solutions are available. The economic case has never been stronger. The benefits are rapid. The barriers to prompt implementation can be identified and overcome.

We face a clear choice. We can continue absorbing the hidden costs of pollution in lost lives, lost productivity, and degraded natural capital. Or we can recognize that protecting clean air is an investment in prosperity.

Super pollutants are the climate emergency brake. By acting decisively to reduce them, we can deliver cleaner air, stronger economies, healthier communities, and greater climate stability.

This is not only about the future. It is about protecting wealth, safeguarding health, and strengthening development today.

It is action that pays off now.

Thank you.

Elliott Harris

Former Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development and Chief Economist