Clean-Air Solutions Can Improve Lives of Nearly One Billion People Across South Asia

New report highlights practical actions to reduce pollution across the region

WASHINGTON, December 15, 2025-Air pollution across the parts of South Asia known as the Indo-Gangetic Plains and Himalayan Foothills (IGP-HF) is causing major losses in health and productivity and remains one of the region's most severe development challenges. Nearly one billion people in the IGP-HF breathe unhealthy air resulting in around one million people dying prematurely every year. Economic losses are estimated at close to 10 percent of regional GDP annually.

A Breath of Change: Solutions for Cleaner Air in the Indo-Gangetic Plains and Himalayan Foothills, released today by the World Bank, finds that a handful of actions-if taken across a range of sectors and jurisdictions-can significantly reduce pollution, improve public health, and support stronger economic growth.

Air pollution in the IGP-HF-which comprises parts of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, and Pakistan-comes from five key sources. These include households burning solid fuels for cooking and heating, industries burning fossil fuels and biomass inefficiently and without appropriate filter technology, motorists using inefficient internal combustion vehicles, farmers burning crop residues and inefficiently managing fertilizers and manure, and households and firms burning waste.

The report highlights solutions that can be readily adopted and scaled up, including electric cooking; electrification and modernization of industrial boilers, furnaces, and kilns; non-motorized and electric transport systems; improved crop residue and livestock waste management; and improved waste segregation, recycling and disposal.

The report groups clean-air solutions into three mutually reinforcing core areas. First, abatement solutions that reduce emissions at their source in cooking, industry, transport, agriculture, and waste management. Second, protection measures that strengthen health and education systems, so children and vulnerable communities are safeguarded during the transition to clean air. Third, strong institutions supported by regulatory frameworks, market-based instruments, and regional coordination that sustain multi-sector and multi-jurisdictional progress over time.

"This report shows that solutions are within reach and offers a practical roadmap for policy and decision makers to implement coordinated, feasible, and evidence-based solutions at scale. There are strong financial and economic rationales for South Asian enterprises, households, and farmers to adopt cleaner technologies and practices, and for governments to support them," said Martin Heger, Senior Environmental Economist at the World Bank.

To help countries operationalize solutions, the report emphasizes "the "Four I's". Information that provides accessible and reliable data for planning and accountability. Incentives that encourage behavioral and investment shift toward cleaner options. Institutions that coordinate action, ensure compliance, and link national and local implementation. Infrastructure that enables clean energy, transport, and waste systems along with modern and efficient industrial operations.

"Achieving cleaner air will require continued collaboration, sustained financing, and strong implementation at local, national and regional levels. By acting together, governments can follow this pathway to cut pollution, save millions of lives, and deliver cleaner air for all," said Ann Jeannette Glauber, World Bank Practice Manager for Environment, South Asia.