Air Pollution Is a Substantial Impediment to Global Poverty Alleviation

Poverty eradication remains a central challenge for sustainable development, yet its environmental determinants are not sufficiently explored. Theoretically, air pollution may exacerbate poverty. However, empirical research on how air pollution influences global poverty is lacking. In this study, we provide global empirical evidence that air pollution is a substantial impediment to poverty alleviation. A multiple linear regression approach is used to analyze the data covering 78 countries during 2000–2020. It is verified that air pollution significantly exacerbates poverty. On average, a 1 µg/m3 increase in the PM2.5 concentration causes a 0.302 percentage point increase in the poverty rate measured based on the $6.85 poverty line. The impact of air pollution is greater during periods of pandemics and in countries experiencing extremely high and low temperatures, whereas the impact is smaller in countries with higher financial development levels and higher age dependency ratios. Abating air pollution would generate substantial benefits in terms of poverty alleviation. If air pollution can be effectively mitigated, the number of impoverished people around the world might fall considerably, and enormous anti-poverty expenditures could be saved, especially in the five highly populated and polluted countries of India, China, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Egypt. These results suggest that air pollution abatement can serve as a policy lever that delivers both environmental and social returns, advancing sustainable development goals on multiple fronts simultaneously.