Air Quality Life Index (AQLI) 2025

Syllabus:GS3/Environment 

In News

• According to the Air Quality Life Index, India is the second most polluted country in the world.

The Air Quality Life Index (AQLI)

• The Air Quality Life Index (AQLI) is developed by Professor Michael Greenstone and the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC).
• It translates air pollution levels into their impact on life expectancy, offering hyper-local data to help users see how much longer people could live if pollution met various standards.
• It supports EPIC’s Clean Air Program, which aims to inform policy and public action with high-quality pollution data.

Key Findings of recent report 

• South Asia, including Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan, remains the most polluted region.
  • Bangladesh is the worst globally, with air 12 times dirtier than WHO limits.
• China, though still above WHO limits, has cut its pollution by 40.8% since 2014 through aggressive policies, including traffic restrictions, cleaner heating, and reduced coal use. 
• North America saw major pollution spikes in 2023 due to wildfires, and Bolivia became the most polluted Latin American country. 
• In Africa, pollution now poses a greater life expectancy threat than HIV/AIDS or malaria in countries like Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Status In India

• Air pollution is India’s most severe health threat, reducing average life expectancy by 3.5 years — nearly twice the impact of malnutrition and over five times that of unsafe water and sanitation. 
• All 1.4 billion Indians live in areas exceeding the WHO’s safe PM2.5 limit (5 µg/m³). 
• The worst-hit region is Northern India, especially Delhi-NCR, where residents could lose up to 8.2 years of life.
  • Other states like Bihar (5.6 years), Haryana (5.3 years), and Uttar Pradesh (5 years) also show severe losses.
• 46% of Indians live in areas that exceed even India’s own weaker PM2.5 limit of 40 µg/m³. 

Suggestions 

• The AQLI 2025 highlights the urgent need for strong, evidence-based policies to combat air pollution . 
• It stresses that cleaning the air is vital not just for the environment, but for extending human life. 
• The report calls for expanding clean energy, stricter emission norms, and investment in green infrastructure, while promoting public awareness and policy action to address this growing health crisis.

Do you know? – The government had launched the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) in 2019 to reduce particulate pollution levels from 2017 baselines by 20-30 per cent by 2024.  1. In 2022, this target was revised upwards, with the government setting a more ambitious goal of achieving a 40 per cent reduction by 2026 in 131 non-attainment cities — urban areas that consistently fail to meet national air quality standards. – Particulate matter (PM) refers to a mix of solid particles and liquid droplets in the air, including visible particles like dust and soot, as well as tiny particles only detectable with an electron microscope.  1. PM is categorized mainly into PM10, which includes inhalable particles 10 micrometers or smaller, and PM2.5, which consists of finer inhalable particles 2.5 micrometers or smaller. WHO Air quality guidelines – The World Health Organization’s Air quality guidelines (AQG) serve as a global target for national, regional and city governments to work towards improving their citizen’s health by reducing air pollution.

Source :TH