Report recommends
Staff Reporter
On the the International Day of Clean Air, Fair Finance Pakistan (FFP) and the University of California, Davis Air Quality Research Center (AQRC) jointly urged Pakistan to move from policy ambition to time-bound, financed delivery of the National Clean Air Policy (NCAP). Clean-air finance is not a synonym for green investment: capital must back only measures that demonstrably cut exposure to PM2.5 and its precursors.
Their joint policy brief, “Air Pollution: A Solvable Problem,” assesses the National and Punjab Clean Air Policies (2023) against the 2021 WHO guidelines: Pakistan has adopted policy but now faces the hard test of delivery, with nine structural gaps nationally and five in Punjab’s. The most basic gap is the absence of a national PM2.5 exposure baseline, without which targets, investment eligibility and impact claims cannot be judged. FFP estimates 43.6 million people — nearly a fifth of Pakistanis — live within 50 km of fossil-fuel power plants; the NCAP’s modelling shows full implementation could avert nearly 129,500 deaths a year by 2040 and USD 24.6 billion in annual health benefits.
Asim Jaffry, Country Programme Lead, Fair Finance Pakistan and lead author, said: “Pakistan does not need to choose between economic development and breathable air. The real choice is whether we keep paying for pollution after the damage is done or finance prevention and a just industrial transition before those losses deepen. Clean air must become a measurable public duty and an investable national priority. That means financing proven emission-control and transition technologies—not simply rebadging conventional green investment—and ending finance that locks firms and transport systems into polluting assets.”
Huma Iqbal, IVLP (Air Quality) alumna and co-author of the brief, said: “Air pollution in Pakistan is no longer a seasonal inconvenience; it is a year-round public-health emergency and deeper damage to human capital. The burden is deeply unequal: women and girls, young children, workers and low-income households living near roads, kilns, industrial clusters and power plants face higher exposure while having the fewest resources to protect themselves. Clean-air implementation must therefore be designed around exposure reduction and a just transition, not technology deployment alone.”
The brief recommends legally enforceable, sector-specific emission-reduction milestones; named federal, provincial and municipal responsibilities; stronger short-lived-climate-pollutant provisions (black carbon, methane); and financing tied to verified outcomes, with pollution-risk disclosure by banks and major borrowers.
Ahtesham Mazhar Gillani, President, Sialkot Chamber of Commerce & Industry, said: “Pakistan’s industrial future will be defined not only by what we produce, but by how we produce it. Clean air is no longer solely an environmental concern—it is a prerequisite for export competitiveness, investment, productivity and the health of the workforce that sustains our economy.”
Note to Editor:
The full policy brief is available at: https://pakistan.fairfinanceasia.org/2026/09/07/clean-air-is-an-economic-choice-pakistan-can-no-longer-postpone/
About Fair Finance Pakistan
Fair Finance Pakistan, a member of Fair Finance Asia and Fair Finance International, works to strengthen financial institutions’ commitment to social, environmental and human-rights standards and to integrate ESG criteria into their operations.
