New Delhi, Feb. 19: Barack Obama has earmarked pollution in India as a challenge of "importance" after his trip here in January, a senior US government official said today, underscoring the worries in Washington on the levels of pollution the American President witnessed during his visit.
"We came out of the President's recent trip knowing that this was an issue of importance to the President," US Environmental Protection Agency chief Gina McCarthy said in Washington, at a ceremony where she inked a pact with US secretary of state John Kerry on the global expansion of an American air quality measurement system.
Ahead of Obama's visit to India, the US was so worried about the levels of particulate matter in New Delhi's air - almost perpetually in the "dangerous" range - that it threatened to scale down the President's external exposure.
The American embassy here purchased dozens of air purifiers just ahead of Obama's trip, underscoring those worries.
At his town-hall style address at New Delhi's Siri Fort auditorium just before leaving India, Obama had mentioned plans to coordinate better with India in ensuring cleaner air in cities like Delhi. But Obama had pitched that cooperation as a part of policy decisions taken by the two nations - not a personal priority.
Today, Kerry too said that a US-made air quality measurement tool - called AirNow - would be introduced by the American embassy in New Delhi.
The US embassy here already has a similar tool, but AirNow is more advanced in its capabilities, officials said.
US air pollution measurement tools introduced overseas aren't always popular, as Kerry revealed. At times, they can be seen by host nations as criticism by the US.
When the US introduced AirNow at its consulate in Shanghai five years back, Kerry said, China wasn't happy.
"It wasn't easy," Kerry said. "Our hosts didn't like it particularly, but we did it."
