When it comes to air quality, experts can tell us what to do but society needs a consensus on why to act. Each year, air pollution gets attention during the winter months. But it is evident that it is a problem all year round. Episodic attention — not just from authorities but also citizens — results in responsibilities shifting across seasons and sectors. When air quality becomes severe, we need emergency measures. But when a patient leaves the ICU, it doesn’t mean that they can leave the hospital.
India needs a different theory of change to deal with air pollution. Go from understanding it as a liability to valuing clean air as an asset. This depends on five shifts.
First, from blaming the other to collective responsibility. When the Covid pandemic hit, everyone, from institutions to companies, had to act in sync and follow common rules. Cleaning the air needs similar scale and coordination. On the governance level, India needs a nodal authority with constitutional powers to ensure collaborative pre-emptive action on air pollution with timelines for all stakeholders. This is the bare minimum to ensure accountability and coordination across tiers of government.
The Confederation of Indian Industry (along with Dalberg Advisors) estimates that air pollution costs Indian businesses $95 billion or 3 per cent of India’s GDP every year. This is not just a business loss but an economy-wide tragedy and requires collective effort. Industries need better monitoring and regulatory reforms that apply to all. SEBI’s Business Responsibility and Sustainability Report (BRSR) framework can lay down tighter guidelines to ensure uniformity in the unit of reporting pollutant emissions, declaration of air pollution mitigation targets (like companies do for carbon emissions), and reporting of disaggregated emissions data. This will ensure that mitigation measures are targeted at the very source of pollution.
Second, from remedial measures to avoiding costs. Pollution costs India significantly — from public health to productivity to GDP. According to World Bank estimates, the global cost of the health damage due to air pollution amounts to $8.1 trillion a year. Reactionary measures when the air quality slips to “severe” are necessary, but not enough to address the cost of it.
Third, from costs of abatement to investment opportunities by raising sectoral ambitions. Can we think of investing in clean air like we think about the clean energy transition? It’s not just about reducing fossil fuels but also focusing on renewables that help businesses, workers, and consumers. India’s push for a clean energy transition has already made it the fourth-largest renewable energy market. Similarly, for greening industries and mobility, the country has launched an ambitious National Green Hydrogen Mission and has bold targets for electric vehicles. Clean power, lower-carbon industry and electric transport is now an investment opportunity worth at least $500 billion in India this decade alone. Acting on clean air is an additional driver to tap into these chances and shift from blame games to actions that crowd in investments and boost economic growth.
There is a sustainable development dimension to air quality action, such as improving the clean-cooking ecosystem, scaling alternative sources of energy for small businesses, and greening public mobility. For instance, CEEW and its partners have developed a first-of-its-kind furnace that uses piped natural gas to melt brass at 1200°C, giving small artisans an interim solution to substitute for coal.
Fourth, from reactionary to data-driven interventions. Just like in health, the more data you have, the better the diagnosis and more precise the intervention. For example, contrary to the perception of many residents, Delhi’s pollution comes not just from stubble burning but for much of the year from transportation, construction activities and waste burning. Government actions have a higher chance of efficacy when backed by comprehensive yet location-specific data. To do this, India needs better emissions monitoring and updated inventories. CEEW analysis of air pollution forecasting models reveals that while they capture pollution trends, their precision in predicting high-pollution episodes remains limited. To enhance these tools, policymakers should collaborate with research organisations to ensure timely information. Here, civil society plays a crucial role too. Citizens’ demand for information on air quality throughout the year can push institutions to build better monitoring systems.
Finally, move from air pollution as a liability to clean air as an asset. Clean air is not just an outcome of the actions stated above, but an asset that can drive economic growth. The impacts are clear. The OECD estimates that approximately 1.2 billion workdays are lost globally each year due to air pollution, and this could reach 3.8 billion days by 2060. Studies have found that air pollution also impacts crop harvest, corporate and foreign investment. But different stakeholders need to know why cleaning the air will benefit their livelihoods and businesses. For instance, farmers will not curb stubble burning until a viable circular economy for alternative uses of biomass emerges. Such interventions are also about creating new markets.
We all agree that air pollution is a problem and know many of the solutions. We also know that there are many more who demand change than step up to lead the change. Changemakers will emerge not just from the technical consensus on the “how” but a social consensus on the “why”.
The writer is CEO, Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW).
Views are personal
