Fossil fuel companies around the world are subsidised to the tune of $10 million per minute every day, according to a new estimate from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

In a study published Monday, in subsidies a year, an amount greater than the combined health spending of all the world's governments.

The Guardian reports that the through air pollutants and the costs of burning oil, gas and coal.

(MORE: )

“This very important analysis shatters the myth that fossil fuels are cheap by showing just how huge their real costs are. There is no justification for these enormous subsidies for fossil fuels, which distort markets and damages economies, particularly in poorer countries," Nicholas Stern, a climate economist at the London School of Economics, told the paper.

The IMF, which called the results of its estimate "shocking," says that removing subsidies for fossil fuel companies would cut global carbon emissions by 20 percent and save around 1.6 million lives per year by reducing outdoor air pollution.

In 2013, a report from the IMF estimated subsidies at $4.9 trillion, but new information from the World Health Organization (WHO) on the costs of medical care due to air pollution shot the figure up over the last couple years.

The WHO released a study last month , an amount equal to a tenth of the total GDP of the European Union in 2013.

Economic costs are severe and grave, but the human cost is nearly incalculable.

Hundreds of thousands have died in Europe from exposure to air pollutants, and the European Environmental Agency .

The IMF's estimate comes a week after the in the Arctic Ocean off Alaska.

Protestors took to Seattle's streets , which docked its Polar Pioneer oil rig in the city's port.

MORE ON WEATHER.COM: Thailand Oil Spill

Royal Thai Navy personnel clean up a beach from a major oil slick on Ao Phrao beach on the island of Ko Samet on July 30, 2013. (Nicolas Asfouri/AFP/Getty Images)