Air Quality Management Program
India
CHALLENGE AND NATURE OF AIR POLLUTION IN INDIA
Transboundary
Scale of Air Pollution •
India is one of the largest emerging economies with a population of over 1.3 billion sprawled across several thousand urban areas, small towns and rural clusters.
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Air quality in India is substantially affected by sources from far away, through inter-state and inter-jurisdiction movement of air, and in patterns that vary seasonally.
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India faces several economic and environmental challenges, air quality being one of them. The quality of air across the country has been deteriorating since the 1990s. In 2017, as high as 77 percent of India’s population was estimated to be exposed to unhealthy levels of ambient PM2.5.
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Sometimes as high as 40 percent of the air pollution in a single state can come from neighboring states.
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No fiscal or legal mechanisms for interstate accountability and collaboration on air pollution exist today in India.
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Globally, air pollution kills more people than HIV/ AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined.
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Severity of air pollution in India is most acute across the Indo Gangetic Plain, India’s agricultural heartland and home to more than 40 percent of its population.
Multi Sectoral Nature •
Air pollution is a multi-sectoral issue and several sectors together lead to poor air quality. Electricity generation, transport, agriculture, industry, and residential sector are all important sources of emissions.
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Urban and rural areas both contribute equally to many types of air pollutants.
The World
Economic Impacts •
Exposure to PM2.5 is a major health risk and a drag on India’s economic development.
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Loss of welfare due to air pollution in India is estimated to be equal in magnitude to 5.9 percent of GDP.
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Other impacts include labor income loss, reduced agricultural productivity, and loss of competitiveness of cities. Air pollution has a disproportionate impact on the poorest people in India.
Bank is committed to tackling air pollution through its Country Partnership Framework with the Government of India (2018-2022), calling for a multi-sector response across its India Program.
HELPING INDIA ACHIEVE ITS NATIONAL CLEAN AIR GOALS •
The World Bank is supporting in the implementation of the National Clean Air Program at the national, regional, and state level through a multi-year technical assistance program with the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC).
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Undertaking a Regional Flagship Study on Ambient Air Pollution and Public Health in South Asia to identify the airsheds in the region.
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Leading and convening on air quality policies and reforms, while focusing efforts on places where air pollution is severe and addressing the needs of the poorest states.
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Bringing the best global knowledge to the task of tackling air quality challenges.
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Mobilization of finance and building connections with donors in the public and private sector and multilateral organizations.
WORLD BANK INDIA AIR QUALITY MANAGEMENT PROGRAM •
The World Bank Group is assisting selected states/cities to prioritize Air Quality Management (AQM) action and investments plans while supporting institutions to deepen knowledge and build consensus for reforms to adopt improved long-term air quality management planning.
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The World Bank Group, through several initiatives, is supporting the Government of India through technical assistance across three focus areas by taking an airshed approach. The Bank’s support is targeted towards the Indo-Gangetic Plain where the population and pollution intensity are the greatest, and capacity and systems to tackle the challenge are the weakest.
An airshed is a part of the atmosphere that behaves in a coherent way with respect to the dispersion of emissions. An airshed based management approach considers all sources of emissions that fall within the airshed.
Policy and Institutional Reform for better outcomes
An
Airshed Approach
Improved air quality management planning
Cross-sector and cross jurisdictional airshed based air quality management plans
WHERE ARE WE FOCUSED
WHO ARE WE WORKING WITH
HOW ARE WE SUPPORTING
National
• Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change • Ministry of Health and Family Welfare • Central Pollution Control Board
• Build capacities and deepen knowledge for air quality management reforms • Develop recommendations for the Central Pollution Control Board on the update and standardization of air quality management guidelines • Strengthen government programs linked to the NCAP for better air quality outcomes • Strengthen health data collection and surveillance on air pollution links with acute respiratory illness
Regional
Indo-Gangetic Plain States (Punjab, Chandigarh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal)
• Support establishment of a regional air quality management modelling process • Enable states to collaborate and prepare an Indo-Gangetic Plains regional clean air action plan
States
Bihar, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh
• Help states develop airshed-based costeffective action and investment plans • Strengthen the state air quality monitoring and data systems
PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS National: Supported the design of the National Clean Air Program by sharing global knowledge and experiences. Knowledge: Gathered experts and thought leaders to discuss the impacts on air quality due to the national lockdown, and opportunity now to shift policies towards a green economic recovery. Bihar: Deployed international technical expertise to assist the State Pollution Control Board in designing a first of its kind state-wide ambient air quality and PM sampler network.
With support from
For more information about the India Air Quality Management Program, please contact: The World Bank 70, Lodi Estate, New Delhi, India. Ph: +91-11-41479301