At the Mint Sustainability Summit 2025 held in New Delhi recently, experts said India\u2019s worsening air pollution is inseparable from the challenges of climate change, and tackling both will require urgent, science-driven interventions.<\/p>\n
A panel discussion on \u201cClimate Change, Atmospheric Pollution and Geo-engineering: The Missing Picture\u201d highlighted how air quality across India is deteriorating, with severe health and economic consequences, while also influencing the country\u2019s climate trajectory.<\/p>\n
\u201cOut of 30 cities most polluted in the world, 21 cities are in India,\u201d said Suruchi Bhadwal, director, climate change<\/a> and air quality at Teri. \u201cWe are living in cities that are highly polluted, with impacts we may not even realize because we breathe the air in and out.\u201d<\/p>\n Also Read | Do rivers have a memory?<\/a><\/p>\n She added that the health effects<\/a> remain largely unspoken, since people usually end up in hospitals or medical centres, paying the costs themselves. This, she said, is not just an individual or household burden but also a strain on the public exchequer, which must maintain hospitals, manage such problems, and treat infections. \u201cI think it is a big challenge that needs to be addressed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Krishna Achuta Rao, professor at Centre for Atmospheric Sciences, IIT Delhi, said poor air quality was not limited to big cities. \u201cWe tend to look at air pollution as an urban problem<\/a>, but if you look at India, certainly, it’s a problem that\u2019s pretty much across the entire country,\u201d he said. From satellite images, he added, \u201cyou can see a murky haze all the way from Pakistan through Bangladesh, reflecting sunlight back into space\u201d.<\/p>\n That reflective effect, while moderating surface heating, also disrupts weather and climate systems. Expanding on the science, Achuta Rao explained how aerosols not only alter temperatures by reflecting or absorbing sunlight but also fundamentally change rainfall patterns.<\/p>\n \u201cThese particles mix with clouds, affecting how droplets form and rain is released,\u201d he said. Global evidence, including from India, show aerosols have contributed to a reduction in monsoon rainfall. \u201cThis is a double whammy, because rainfall from the monsoon is our lifeline,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n