Air pollution is universally recognized as one of the most pressing environmental challenges in the Asia-Pacific region. In recent years, this impact has risen at an alarming rate and has resulted in an increased premature death and threatened the livelihoods and sustainable development in region.

Rapid population growth, industrialization, and urbanization combined with delayed enactment of environmental policies have led to serious air quality problems across Asia.

The deteriorating quality of air, transboundary haze pollution and global climate change are the major problems affecting the atmospheric ecosystem. Air quality has deteriorated as a result of increasing traffic congestion, rapid industrialisation and increased energy consumption.

To effectively manage air pollution, need to measure it accurately and at high spatial resolution. However, maintaining a dense network of regulatory instruments is financially and technically burdensome for low- and middle-income countries.

India has dropped from fifth to eighth place in terms of the world’s most polluted countries in 2022. According to this World Air Quality Report 2022 by the IQAir, out of the 50 most polluted cities in the world, 39 are in India.

This brief reports the findings of a study that examined the relationship between air-pollution exposure, socio-economic status, and working and living conditions in Bangkok. It provides an overview of the study and highlights six recommendations to address related issues.

This report contains a comparative analysis of five African cities in terms of their air pollution problem, as well as their attempts to manage and improve air quality. Also included is an analysis of the impact of counter measures to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021 in those cities, and the impact that these had on air pollution levels.

Achieving carbon neutral development will take a roughly 40-year-long structural transformation, especially in developing and emerging economies, where most people exposed to poor air quality live. In the meantime, 6-7 million people die each year by breathing polluted air. But does climate action always lead to better air quality?

Air pollution was the fourth-leading risk factor for premature mortality globally in 2019, causing an estimated 6.67 million deaths (HEI 2020). A large majority of such deaths were caused by ambient, outdoor air pollution due to inhalation of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) (World Bank 2020).

The study intends to support the Delhi government, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), and the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) in identifying priority areas of interventions needed in controlling air pollution in Delhi during the winter season of 2021.