{"id":52903,"date":"2025-09-02T20:44:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T15:14:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=52903"},"modified":"2025-09-08T11:41:35","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T06:11:35","slug":"air-quality-life-index-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/02-09-2025\/air-quality-life-index-2025","title":{"rendered":"Air Quality Life Index (AQLI) 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus:GS3\/Environment&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>In News<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>According to the Air Quality Life Index, India is the second most polluted country in the world.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The Air Quality Life Index (AQLI)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Air Quality Life Index (AQLI) is developed by Professor Michael Greenstone and the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>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.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It supports EPIC\u2019s Clean Air Program, which aims to inform policy and public action with high-quality pollution data.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Key Findings of recent report&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>South Asia, including Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan,<\/strong> remains the most polluted region.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Bangladesh <\/strong>is the worst globally, with air 12 times dirtier than WHO limits.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>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.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>North America saw major pollution spikes<\/strong> in 2023 due to wildfires, and Bolivia became the most polluted Latin American country.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>In Africa, pollution<\/strong> now poses a greater life expectancy threat than HIV\/AIDS or malaria in countries like Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Status In India<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Air pollution is India\u2019s most severe health threat,<\/strong> reducing average life expectancy by 3.5 years \u2014 nearly twice the impact of malnutrition and over five times that of unsafe water and sanitation.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>All 1.4 billion Indians live<\/strong> in areas exceeding the<strong> WHO\u2019s safe PM2.5 limit (5 \u00b5g\/m\u00b3).&nbsp;<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The worst-hit region is Northern India, especially Delhi-NCR, where residents could lose up to<strong> 8.2 years of life<\/strong>.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Other states like Bihar (5.6 years), Haryana (5.3 years), and Uttar Pradesh (5 years) also show severe losses.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>46% of Indians live in areas t<\/strong>hat exceed even India\u2019s own weaker PM2.5 limit of 40 \u00b5g\/m\u00b3.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Suggestions&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The AQLI 2025 highlights the urgent need for strong, evidence-based policies to combat <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/blog\/air-pollution\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/blog\/air-pollution\/\">air pollution <\/a>.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It stresses that cleaning the air is vital not just for the environment, but for extending human life.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>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.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#ebecf0\"><tbody><tr><td><strong>Do you know?<\/strong><br>&#8211; The government had launched the<strong> National Clean Air Programme (NCAP)<\/strong> in 2019 to reduce particulate pollution levels from 2017 baselines by 20-30 per cent by 2024.&nbsp;<br>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 \u2014 urban areas that consistently fail to meet national air quality standards.<br>&#8211; <strong>Particulate matter (PM) <\/strong>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.&nbsp;<br>1. PM is categorized mainly into<strong> PM10, <\/strong>which includes inhalable particles 10 micrometers or smaller, and <strong>PM2.5, <\/strong>which consists of finer inhalable particles 2.5 micrometers or smaller.<br><strong>WHO Air quality guidelines<\/strong><br>&#8211; The World Health Organization\u2019s Air quality guidelines (AQG) serve as a global target for national, regional and city governments to work towards improving their citizen\u2019s health by reducing air pollution.<br><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"464\" height=\"241\" ><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Source :<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/sci-tech\/energy-and-environment\/all-of-india-breathes-bad-air-aqli-2025-report-says\/article69994433.ece\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">TH<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>In News<\/strong><\/h3>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">According to the Air Quality Life Index, India is the second most polluted country in the world.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<h3><strong>The Air Quality Life Index (AQLI)<\/strong><\/h3>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">The Air Quality Life Index (AQLI) is developed by Professor Michael Greenstone and the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC).<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">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.<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">It supports EPIC\u2019s Clean Air Program, which aims to inform policy and public action with high-quality pollution data.<\/li>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/02-09-2025\/air-quality-life-index-2025\" class=\"btn btn-primary btn-sm float-end\">Read\u00a0More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":53003,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2025\/09\/air-quality-life-index-2025.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52903"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52903\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53341,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52903\/revisions\/53341"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}