Top offenders to blame for air pollution cost

The cost of air pollution in 2009 has been revealed to be as much as €169 billion (£145 billion), with as much as €85 billion (£73 billion) caused by less than two per cent of the largest polluting facilities.

The report, conducted by the European Environment Agency (EEA), concluded that air pollution from the 10,000 biggest polluting facilities cost European citizens between €102 and 169 billion in 2009. Between €51 and 85 billion was caused by just 191 facilities.

This leaves each European citizen with an estimated bill of €200-330 (£170- 280) on average in 2009, with carbon dioxide emissions contributing most to the overall cost. The largest EU economies, such as Germany, Poland, the United Kingdom, France and Italy, were also the largest emitters.

Professor Jacqueline McGlade, EEA executive director, commented: "The estimated costs are calculated using the emissions reported by the facilities themselves. By using existing tools employed by policy-makers to estimate harm to health and the environment, we revealed some of the hidden costs of pollution. We cannot afford to ignore these issues."

Other costly pollutants included sulphur dioxide, ammonia, particulate matter and nitrogen oxides, which were found to cause €38-105 (£33-90 billion) billion of damage a year.

Posted by Lauren Steadman