OCR Event Manager - Master Calendar

Creating a safe breathing space for billions in low-resource settings in a warming world 

Air pollution is the leading environmental health risk globally. India, the most populous country, has the arduous task of tackling one of the highest levels of air pollution and climate change simultaneously. Transitioning to sustainable emission pathways for energy and health security through policy and technological interventions is pivotal to India’s aspiration to become a ‘developed’ country by 2047. However, disjointed climate and clean air actions slow down the current progress. 

We identify three critical gaps in the implementation of scientific knowledge for policymaking. First, inadequate observations and large discrepancies between top-down and bottom-up approaches for understanding the dynamic nature of sources make it difficult to track progress. Second, the complex interactions between air pollution and climate are not fully understood, and therefore, policy decisions often are isolated and driven by short-term targets rather than prioritizing sustainable long-term pathways. Third, limited and scattered local evidence of environmental health impacts fails to mobilize citizen engagement strong enough to drive policy action.  

In this talk, I will highlight methodological approaches along with key examples to illustrate how we are addressing these knowledge gaps. Novel exposure modelling using satellite-derived aerosol products and IoT-enabled low-cost sensors has accelerated epidemiological studies in India. Modelling studies revealed how the choice of mitigation pathways targeting primary PM species and precursor gases could lead to contrasting climate consequences for India. We found that emission pathways that would keep warming below 2 degrees by 2100 could save 0.77±0.19 million annual premature deaths and 18.7±4.3 million DALYs by mid-century, which translates to an expected economic benefit of 8.9±2.8 billion Euros annually. While these studies provide robust evidence supporting a health-centric narrative for clean air and climate actions, they open new frontiers, such as addressing inequity in health benefits across demographic subgroups in achieving cleaner air quality, considering toxicity in health studies, and conducting trade-off analyses in prioritizing cost-effective mitigation measures.

ZOOM info: https://illinois.zoom.us/j/88470172846?pwd=FEya3RaQTscMsd6XkU9moVtGCTi5Kt.1

Meeting ID: 884-7017-2846   Passcode: 304774