About the Event

The inaugural edition of the dialogue On Air, organised in collaboration with the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, will focus on pathways to achieving India’s ambient air quality standards. Held bi-annually, the dialogue On Air, will feature conversations with scientists, policymakers, researchers, civil society experts, communication specialists, journalists, and on-ground actors supporting India’s transition towards cleaner air.

Cleaning our air requires simultaneous policy efforts across several different sectors. Indian authorities have implemented several measures to address pollution over the last few years. Yet, these measures may not be enough for India to achieve its National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) in the coming years.

The dialogue will also include views from on-ground actors and high-level experts on crop-residue burning and emissions inventories.

Key Findings from the Four Studies

• About 674 million citizens are likely to breathe air with high concentrations of PM 2.5 in 2030, even if India were to comply with its existing pollution control policies and regulations.
• Aligning sustainable development policies with implementation of advanced emission control technologies could provide NAAQS-compliant air quality to about 85 per cent of the Indian population.
• Despite multiple source apportionment studies specific to Delhi NCR, policymakers can’t design an effective action plan due to varying estimates. A synthesis of studies finds having common guidelines, quantification of uncertainties as well as greater data transparency might help in designing more effective action plans.
• Farmers in Punjab are keen to break away from the wheat-paddy cycle. Interventions such as Happy Seeder could be more successful if distribution were improved, new business models were deployed, and subsidies were better targeted. In addition, deploying low-cost pollution sensors in rural areas could help with tracking mitigation policy effectiveness.

Read the CEEW-IIASA report on Pathways to Achieve National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) in India, our brief on What is Polluting Delhi’s Air?, Paddy Residue Burning in Punjab and Alternative Methods to Monitor Air Pollution.