Air pollution costs the world trillions of dollars a year and severely impedes development in many countries, according to the World Bank. In a major study of the economic costs of indoor and outdoor pollution, the bank found that in 2013 – the year from which the latest available estimates date – China lost nearly 10% of its GDP,  and Sri Lanka and Cambodia roughly 8%.  India lost over 1.4 million lives due to air pollution, the second largest number of deaths, in 2013, a World Bank report  stated. The country lost 7.69% of its GDP in welfare and manpower costs due to air pollution. Notably, China was the worst hit with a death toll of over 1.6 million.

Rich countries are also losing tens of billions of dollars a year through lost work days and welfare costs from premature deaths. Dirty air was found to cost the UK $7.6bn (£5.6bn) a year, the US $45bn and Germany $18bn.

Zimbawe, Malawi and Central African Republic were among the world’s least polluted countries, but Liberia had the lowest lost labour costs among developing countries ($25m).

Uruguay lost just 0.03% of its GDP, costing it $17m, but Iceland – with only 400,000 people, little industry and costs of just $3m – emerged as the cleanest country in the world overall.

Drawing on data from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, the bank said that air pollution now kills 5.5m people a year prematurely, or one in 10 people worldwide.