The Sustainable Trade Index 2022 ranks 30 global economies on a range of trade-related indicators, including air pollution. India topped the ranking, most likely due to its massive oil refinery complex, the nation’s largest export. India was trailed by neighbors Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The top ten polluters also included nations such as Myanmar and Peru. The data, as Visual Capitalist points out, suggests a potential link between air pollution and economic output per capita, as lower-income economies would tend to lack clean-up technologies and environmental hardware such as air filters.

China, the world’s largest trading economy, came fourth. Beijing has made some strides in forcing more stringent environmental standards on its industry, though much remains to be done. Economies that have taken pains to build renewable energy resources, such as the Philippines and Singapore, scored on the lower end of the air pollution scale. Developed economies such as the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand have the least polluted atmospheres, according to our ranking.

Visual Capitalist designed a depiction of the STI’s ranking of this indicator in the form of spiral. The shape occurs everywhere in nature, from conch shells to pine cones, and in this case resembles a nautilus constructed by the mathematical sequence known as the Fibonacci numbers. It’s fitting that we settled on this visualization: just as mathematics comports with nature, so too must human industry – and global trade – recognize its ineluctable impact on sustainability.

Growth and trade deplete natural resources. But trade and investment liberalization also can incentivize more rigorous environmental standards and the use of cleaner production processes and technologies. Air pollution and economic output don’t always have to move in step. Sustainable trade is key.

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