Take a deep breath. You have just increased your chances of having a lower life expectancy, as you will know if you have been following this newspaper’s campaign on the subject of Delhi’s air. That is because India’s urban air pollution regularly reaches dangerously poor-quality levels. India frequently outpaces China on poor air quality — a competition with no winner.
Of the 30 cities in the world with the worst of the outdoor particulate matter (PM 2.5) pollution, 15 are in India, contributing to over 6,00,000 premature deaths from this type of pollution. Delhi has the worst outdoor air pollution of any city worldwide, around 150 micrograms per cubic metre, which is 15 times higher than the World Health Organisation’s recommended limit. Air pollution levels like these cost India dearly. Recent research from the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate has found that the economic cost of premature deaths from air pollution in India is equivalent to over 6 per cent of GDP.
The high personal and economic costs of air pollution have become a topic of national debate in China. Just last month, Chai Jining, a former TV journalist, released a self-produced documentary called Under the Dome about China’s air pollution crisis. In one weekend, the film had already been watched 200 million times and China’s new environment minister admitted that he had watched it as well. It certainly got people talking about air pollution and the cost to human lives.
A similar conversation has only just begun in India. There is a way to power the Indian economy and deliver strong, sustainable growth without the harmful side effects of air pollution from the burning of fossil fuels, such as coal and diesel. But it means revising old ways of thinking, making smart policy and investment choices now, and seizing a moment of opportunity.
First, there needs to be a shift away from the old argument that taking action on climate would harm India’s economy. Not only is that a false premise, but we now have striking evidence that climate action can actually spur economic growth.
Research on China undertaken for the Global Commission has shown that a fast transition away from coal use and an early peaking of emissions is in China’s own self-interest, given the associated air pollution and dependence on fossil fuel imports, with their increasingly volatile prices. Sustainability is at the core of China’s “new normal”. If China understood 20 years ago what it knows now, it would have gone down a different route in its structure of cities and use of coal. Indeed, the latest figures show that China’s consumption of coal has stopped rising.
