Does Air Pollution Aggravate Health Problems in Low-Income Countries? Verification from Countries Along the Belt and Road

Xiaocang Xu, Yanglin Zhong, Shuangshuang Cai, Lei Lei and Jian Peng ()
Additional contact information
Xiaocang Xu: School of Economics and Management/Institute of Sustainable Development, Huzhou University, Huzhou 313000, China
Yanglin Zhong: School of Economics and Management/Institute of Sustainable Development, Huzhou University, Huzhou 313000, China
Shuangshuang Cai: School of Economics and Management/Institute of Sustainable Development, Huzhou University, Huzhou 313000, China
Lei Lei: School of Economics and Management/Institute of Sustainable Development, Huzhou University, Huzhou 313000, China
Jian Peng: College of Philosophy Law & Political Science, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai 200234, China

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 5, 1-21

Abstract: Goal 8 of the Sustainable Development Goals aims to promote sustained, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth. However, most of the countries along the Belt and Road are low-income countries in the initial stages of industrialization, which are also facing serious air pollution and health problems while promoting economic growth. This is also a fact that both China and its partner countries along the Belt and Road need to take into account when it comes to economic cooperation between China and countries along the Belt and Road. This review selected 91 papers from academic databases such as CNKI, Web of Science and Sci-hub from 2013 to 2024 to analyze the impact of air pollution on health in countries along the Belt and Road and compared it with countries not along the Belt and Road. The paper makes the following findings: First, air pollution is very harmful to general health and has produced specific diseases related to lung function and children’s respiratory health in countries along the Belt and Road, similar to countries not along the Belt and Road. Second, mortality, mental health, and related health expenditures result from higher air pollution in Belt and Road countries more so than in non-Belt and Road countries. Therefore, when China conducts economic cooperation with countries along the Belt and Road, it should take the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS) as the direction and fully consider local environmental pollution, social and economic issues, and health issues to ensure the long-term sustainable economic growth of the Belt and Road in the future.

Keywords: sustainable development goals (SDGS); the belt and road; air pollution; health; economic cooperation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/5/1796/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/5/1796/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:5:p:1796-:d:1595765

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().