Fix Air Pollution, India’s Top Judge Pleads

India’s top judge on Saturday asked prime minister Narendra Modi’s government to come up with an emergency plan to tackle Delhi’s toxic air quality and dangerous smog conditions.

Delhi, often ranked the world’s most polluted capital, faces extremely bad air in winter due to crop stubble burning, emissions from transport, coal-fired plants outside the city and other industrial emissions.

“We have been forced to wear masks at home also, the situation is very serious,” said N V Ramana, Chief Justice of India, who asked for clarity on the measures initiated by the government so far.

“Delhi air quality will become severe and increase in surface wind may help .. another two to three days it will increase further. Take an emergency decision,” he said.

On Friday, India’s federal pollution agency alerted states and municipalities over emergency measures to tackle worsening smog conditions in the capital.

India is one of many developing countries facing uncontrolled pollution with a lack of funding, insufficient human resources and a continuing Covid-19 pandemic.

Harmful to Disadvantaged

The World Health Organization (WHO) said this week that countries’ inability to protect their citizens’ health is most harmful for their most disadvantaged groups, including ethnic minorities, poor communities, migrants and displaced people, older people and many women and children.

“Almost 80% of deaths caused by air pollution could be avoided if current air pollution levels were reduced to the WHO Air Quality guidelines,” said Maria Neira, WHO Director of Environment, Climate Change and Health.

The health of millions of people around the world is affected by air pollution every year. In 2019, it was the fourth leading risk factor for early death worldwide, surpassed only by high blood pressure, tobacco use and poor diet.

Two Indian companies have joined an international initiative to reduce air pollution, the Alliance for Clean Air.

“In September the WHO lowered the recommended levels of pollutants considered safe for human health; more than 90% of the world’s population lives in areas which do not meet WHO’s previous pollution standards,” says Anirban Ghosh, chief sustainability officer at India’s Mahindra Group.

Along with Mahindra and Wipro, Accenture, Bloomberg, Biogen, Google, GoTo, IKEA, Maersk and Siemens are members of the alliance.

Premature Deaths Near 2m

Developed nations are not exempt. Nearly 2 million premature deaths from air pollution in 2010 were caused by the production of goods for consumers in G20 nations, according to Keisuke Nansai at the National Institute for Environmental Studies in Tsukuba, Japan.

Nansai and his team sought to identify the impact of each nation’s economic consumption on air pollution and the health problems they cause.

In 2010, the latest year for which all figures were available, consumption of goods in the 19 nations of the G20 resulted in almost 2 million air pollution-related premature deaths worldwide, including 78,600 infants.

The team has called for more collaboration between G20 countries to curb air pollution-related deaths caused as a direct result of the purchasing of goods.