‘India, China most vulnerable to joint risks of climate change, air pollution’
NEW DELHI: India and China are among the world’s top five countries that are most vulnerable to climate change and air pollution with the capacity to deal with the risks, a first of its kind research assessing the combined risks of air pollution and climate change, said on Thursday.
The world’s two fastest developing economies with 2.5 billion plus people have witnessed a spurt in particulate matter induced air pollution levels in the past two decades and have seen high risks due to climate change induced extreme rainfall, frequent cyclones and heat waves in recent past, the study says.
“Deaths resulting from toxic pollution are highest where the distribution of toxic pollution is greatest and, critically, also where the impacts of climate change pose the greatest risk,” the study, Global distribution and coincidence of pollution, cli“It
mate impacts, and health risk in the Anthropocene, said, in a specific reference to India and China. For more than 30 years, the scientists on the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have assessed impacts of human induced climate change whereas bodies such as World Health Organisation have focused on health impacts of rising air pollution globally.
Scientists at the University of
Notre Dame found a “strong and statistically significant” link between the two environmental hazards and said the countries which are at most risk of climate change are also the countries with highest risks of toxic pollution. Vital difference between climate change and air pollution is that greenhouse gases that cause global warming are considered non-toxic whereas air pollutants such as particulate matter or nitrogen dioxide are toxic.
is not surprising to find that these risks are highly correlated, but this study provides the data and analysis to inform policy, data and analysis that were previously lacking,” associate professor of Political Science at the university Debra Javeline said, in a statement.
To make the study useful for policymakers, the authors ranked 177 countries on “Target”, a measure that combined a country’s climate impact risk, toxic pollution risk and its potential readiness to mitigate these risks. Most countries such as India and China, have high air pollution and green house gas (GHG) emissions. China is the world’s leading total GHG emitter and India is on track to join it at the top and they are two top ranked countries to emit toxic air pollution.
Based on these criteria, the study ranked Singapore, Rwanda, China, India, Solomon Islands, Bhutan, Botswana, Georgia, the Republic of Korea and Thailand as top 10 countries.