US President Donald Trump called India's air filthy in the final Presidential debate for US Elections 2020. He also claimed that the USA has the lowest amount of carbon emissions in the world and that walking out of the Paris Accord was a great idea. Is India's air filthy? BOOM Explains.
Anumita Roy Chowdhury, Executive Director, Research And Advocacy, Centre For Science And Environment, says that two statements are true here - one, India has a big struggle in containing air pollution and two, Donald Trump is in denial of climate change. The new State of Global Air Report 2020 states that since 2010, particulate matter related deaths have gone up by 61% in India. India also records the highest number of infant deaths in the world due to air pollution at 24%. Also, 95% Indians breathe air that is not healthy as defined by the WHO. India is in a state of emergency due to air pollution and we are nowhere close to tackling this problem.
She also says that Donald Trump has in the past few years rolled back significant environmental regulations that are needed to significantly reduce the impact of climate change in USA. Getting out of the Paris Accord and not believing in the multilateralism of global solution and mitigation, that isolationism is not acceptable for a world power. The US Elections are therefore critical not just for the USA, but for the world.
Watch BOOM's Govindraj Ethiraj interview Anumita Roy Chowdhury on the efforts India is undertaking to tackle its air pollution problem, why Donald Trump is partially right and why Delhi is a true representation of India's environmental issues.