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This paper surveys the recent literature exploring the causes of urban pollution in the developing world and the implications of such pollution for a city's competitiveness. Within a system of cities, cities compete for jobs and people. Those cities that specialize in heavy industrial activity will gain from a manufacturing boom but are more likely to be polluted than a city that specializes in the service economy and one that makes investments in regulations to reduce the social costs of power generation, transportation, and household services. The paper explores three main questions. First, why does pollution inhibit urban competitiveness? Second, why is this effect likely to grow in importance over time? Third, why have cities been slow to adopt cost-effective regulatory strategies?

City Development Strategy --- Environment --- Environmental Sustainability --- Pollution --- Pollution Management --- Urban Development --- Urban Environment --- Urbanization

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The Cost of Air Pollution: Strengthening the economic case for action, a joint study of the World Bank and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), seeks to estimate the costs of premature deaths related to air pollution, to strengthen the case for action and facilitate decision making in the context of scarce resources. An estimated 5.5 million lives were lost in 2013 to diseases associated with outdoor and household air pollution, causing human suffering and reducing economic development. Those deaths cost the global economy about USD 225 billion in lost labor income in 2013 and more than USD 5 trillion in welfare losses, pointing toward the economic burden of air pollution.

Air Pollution --- Air Quality & Clean Air --- Brown Issues and Health --- Climate Change and Health --- Environment --- Environment and Health --- Environment and Natural Resource Management --- Health, Nutrition and Population --- Indoor Air Pollution --- Life Expectancy --- Pollution Management & Control --- Pollution Management and Environmental Health

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In urban areas around the world, increasing motorization and growing travel demand make the urban transportation sector an ever-greater contributor to local air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. The situation is particularly acute in developing countries, where growing metropolitan regions suffer some of the world's highest levels of air pollution. Policies that seek to develop and manage this transportation sector-to meet rising demand linked to economic growth and safeguard the environment and human health-have had strikingly different results, with some inadvertently exacerbating the traffic and pollution they seek to mitigate. This paper provides an overview of the findings of the recent literature on the impacts of a host of urban transportation policies used in developed and developing country settings. The paper identifies research challenges and future areas of study of transportation policies, which can have important, long-lasting impacts on urban life and global climate change.

Air Pollution --- Air Quality and Clean Air --- Environmental Sustainability --- Pollution Management and Control --- Public Transit --- Transportation --- Urban Environment

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Despite significant efforts to reduce polluting air emissions, during and after the economic transition in the 1990s, Poland remains home to many of the most polluted cities in the European Union (EU). This report examines the nature and magnitude of ambient air pollution (AAP) in Poland. It provides estimates of the health burden, and economic cost associated with the health impacts, of ambient air pollution id est, particulate matter (PM) both at national and regional or voivodeship levels in Poland. It also explores the roles of various sources of air pollution emissions on ambient air quality in Poland. With emphasis on the critical residential sector, this report analyses the likely impacts of national and EU legislative scenarios on future pollution emissions and ambient air quality in Poland. In addition, the report performs a demonstrative cost-benefit analysis of selected interventions to reduce AAP in residential and transport sectors and from point sources in the voivodeships that bear the heaviest burden of the impacts of AAP. Institutional factors that affect the effectiveness of ambient air quality management are discussed. Finally, policy recommendations for air pollution prevention, reduction and abatement are presented. The current study estimates that 25,280 - 44,811 deaths were caused by ambient PM2.5 pollution in Poland in 2016. The analysis applied two methodologies: (i) the approach from the 2016 Global Burden of Disease study; and (ii) the approach used by the EEA in their 2018 study. GBD studies analyze the health risks attributable to environmental factors, for different years, for most countries by linking environmental factors with the burden of disease attributable to them. Consistent with the GBD methodology, the analysis in this chapter applies a conservative approach by calculating premature, age-specific mortality from five diseases - ischemic heart disease, stroke, COPD, lung cancer, lower respiratory illness, that are directly linked to PM pollution. By contrast, the EEA approach calculates all-cause or non-accidental mortality (i.e., all deaths excluding poisoning, suicide and war), and assumes a linear relationship between mortality and PM concentration for population above age 30. The morbidity health burden is estimated in this report using HRAPIE recommended methodology (WHO, 2013) that focuses on acute bronchitis for children, chronic bronchitis for adults, cardiovascular and respiratory hospital admissions and lost work days caused by PM air pollution.

Air Pollution --- Air Quality --- Air Quality and Clean Air --- Brown Issues and Health --- Emissions --- Environment --- Pollution Management and Control

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The Inspection Panel, the World Bank's independent accountability mechanism, has released the third report in its Emerging Lessons Series. The latest report identifies lessons from Panel cases related to environmental assessment (EA) issues. The Panel is an impartial fact-finding body, independent from the World Bank management and staff, reporting directly to the Board. In response to complaints from affected people, it has a mandate to review projects funded by the World Bank, investigate allegations of harm to people or the environment and review whether the Bank followed its operational policies and procedures. Of the 34 cases the Panel has investigated since it was created by the Bank's Board of Executive Directors in 1993, 29 of them have involved environmental assessment issues. The Panel's EA report identifies seven lessons that can be learned from those cases, and reaches five major conclusions. The Panel's Emerging Lessons Series is meant to build institutional knowledge at the World Bank, enhance accountability and contribute to more effective development. The first two reports, on lessons from cases involving involuntary resettlement and indigenous peoples, were released in 2016. The fourth report in the series - on cases related to consultation, participation and disclosure of information - will be released in the fall of 2017.

Brown Issues and Health --- Environment --- Environment and Health --- Environmental Assessment --- Environmental Protection --- Health, Nutrition and Population --- Pollution Management & Control --- Sustainability