Will Delhi Have Clean Air For The G20 Summit?
7th September's World Clean Air, 9-10th is the big meeting. Trends and latest data shows the Indian capital can - at times - drop its tag of ‘most polluted city.’ But not for long.
Days ahead of the G20 summit in Delhi, the Indian capital has been reported as the most polluted city in the world. The report is by the University of Chicago which recently began partnering with Delhi’s local government to tackle air pollution. Its report describes the direness of the crisis in terms of life expectancy.
Air pollution is shortening lives in Delhi by an estimated 11.9 years. In comparison, it’s 8 years in the rest of north India, 5.3 for the country, and 2.3 years globally on average. In India, air pollution is a bigger threat to life expectancy than heart disease, high blood pressure or tobacco.
Calling Delhi the world’s most polluted city ahead of the G20 summit, on the 9-10th of September, may be contentious even though Delhi has been here before. It was the most polluted capital of the world in four of the last five years.
The summit is a matter of pride for Prime Minister Modi’s government which has gone all out to give the city a makeover. A new venue in central Delhi has been made, roads potholed by the monsoon rain are being fixed, saplings and lamp posts are being planted by the roadsides. Till the time of writing, there’s no response from the government to the life expectancy report.
Officials insist that air quality is improving and the trend continues. This year, till 31st August, the PM 2.5 was 77 micrograms, lowest in six years barring the 2020 during the pandemic lockdown. However, it doesn’t do a deep dive into details. For example, how much of this improvement is due rain and wind which officials concede greatly impacts air quality.
Delhi’s Air Quality Dipped in August
In fact, August 2023 has been the driest on record in India since 1901, likely the result of a combination of both the El Nino effect as well as global warming. A quick look at the data from the official air quality monitor near the G20 summit’s venue shows there were twice as many - 21 - poorer air days recorded than a year ago.
So if air pollution has edged up, what sort of air quality can world leaders and hundreds of others visiting Delhi for the summit expect?
The monsoon rain ensures the cleanest air, relatively speaking, in the city at this time of year. The PM 2.5 level has been coasting along in the 20-50 microgram range (see image below, and track live here) for the last few weeks. While that is still about four to eight times the WHO’s safe guideline, it’s only fraction of how bad it can get between October and March, the peak pollution months.
The dates for the G20 summit have been selected well at least as far as Delhi’s air quality calendar is concerned. It is finely sandwiched between the monsoon’s withdrawal, so the kind of intense rain and flooding seen in mid-July is less likely, and it is just three weeks before Delhi’s main pollution control plan starts, on 1st October when the main pollution watch programme starts.
A major source of ambient air pollution - diesel trucks and buses, other private vehicles - are being kept away from central Delhi. The capital has been divided up into “controlled” and “regulated” zones by police. The “elaborate” traffic regulations are, according to a police statement, “in the interest of public safety and convenience of the general public.” That’s likely to further help air quality.
Viewed from a global lens, neither Delhi nor India is alone in the chronic severity of its air pollution crisis. India is not the world’s most polluted nation, it is Bangladesh according to the University of Chicago’Air Quality Life Index (AQLI) report.
The Indonesian capital, Jakarta has been battling extreme air pollution just ahead of an ASEAN summit 5-6th September. It’s been desperately trying to cut air pollution which on some days has been the worst in the world. Roads were sprayed with water, many officials asked to work from home and the number of cases of respiratory infections recorded hit 200,000 in August alone which is twice the monthly average of last year.
The air quality crisis of north India alone, however, dwarfs all other pollution hotspots in the world. It affects over 520 million people, more than the population of the US.