From ‘Airpocalypse’ to blue skies: What China can teach India about combating pollution

The smog crisis in Delhi has triggered protest marches in the capital. Air pollution caused 15% of all deaths in Delhi in 2023. More alarmingly, it shortens the life span of residents by almost 8 years on average. Experts say India’s solutions fail due to poor enforcement and reliance on temporary fixes. But if China could reduce pollution in a decade, why can’t India do it?

The Chinese embassy spokesperson for India, Yu Jing, has offered China’s assistance to Delhi to fight air pollution, saying Beijing was ready to share its learnings. Beijing reduced pollution by 89% within a decade, making it a model for other cities. The city became acutely aware of the impact of emissions, vehicular pollution and economic expansion on the environment in the early 2000s and decided to take aggressive steps.

But clean air and blue skies were not achieved in a day. China had to come up with a strategic action plan to combat the pollution. The country became aware of its severe air pollution in the 1990s. The population of Beijing was increasing at a rapid pace, having touched 13.6 million in the 90s. The number of cars on the city's roads crossed the one million mark, and Beijing was making headlines due to its deadly smog.

By 2013 Beijing’s air quality had hit rock bottom with PM 2.5 levels soaring to 101.56 micrograms per cubic meter of air while the WHO recommends an average daily concentration of 50 micrograms per cubic meter. In response, China released the Air Pollution Action Plan in September 2013, which became China’s most influential environmental policy. It helped Beijing reduce PM 2.5 levels by 33% between 2013 and 2017.

Here's what China did.

Boosting sustainable transport

China was once considered the ‘Kingdom of the Bicycle’. Beijing authorities reintroduced bike-sharing schemes to encourage bike use and get people to pedal again. China also restricted the number of cars on the roads and introduced all-electric bus fleets. It controlled truck traffic within the city, encouraging trucks to use the bypasses and created Low Emission Zones (LEZs).The city’s subway system was expanded. The odd-even scheme of traffic rationing was also one of the ways to reduce vehicular emissions on the streets of Beijing.

Switching to cleaner fuels

China’s other focus was cleaner fuels. It limited the use of coal-fired boilers. Beijing focused on reducing coal consumption by shutting down industrial sites and improving heating systems. The city added 4 gigawatts of solar and wind capacity.

Afforestation and reforestation programmes

The government launched afforestation and reforestation programmes like the Great Green Wall and planted more than 35 billion trees.

State-of-the-art air quality monitoring

Beijing focused on monitoring air pollution better by using high quality technologies like HD Satellite, remote sensing and laser radar. These sensors helped identify the pollution hotspots.

Increased spending

China spent a huge amount towards reducing air pollution. Beijing’s budget to fight air pollution increased from little over 3 billion yuan (US$434 million) in 2013 to more than 18 billion yuan (US$2.6 billion) in 2017.

The result?

By 2020, coal consumption had reduced by 150 million tonnes. Respiratory cases had fallen 20%. Over all these years, Beijing has maintained its momentum towards achieving clean air in a structured manner.

So why can’t India manage to clean its air? What is the urgent need of the hour?

This is India's response to its air pollution crisis.

Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) for NCR

It’s an emergency action plan that kicks in during the pollution emergency. It escalates anti-pollution measures across the national capital region. But as the Supreme Court noted, “Perennial GRAP is not the solution” as a sustained strategy is needed.

National Clean Air Programme (NCAP)

It was a time-bound national strategy launched in 2019 to achieve a 20-30% reduction in PM concentrations by 2024.

Controlling stubble burning

Promoting the use of stubble management machinery and providing subsidies to farmers to stop them from burning crop residue.

Cutting domestic and industrial emissions

Banning the use of polluting fuels like Pet Coke and furnace oil in NCR

Cloud Seeding

Delhi attempted its first trial of cloud seeding in October 2025, but the effort was a waste due to a lack of enough moisture in the clouds

Delhi’s efforts to control the pollution crisis have not made much of a difference as they rely on short-term emergency measures and do not address the year-round pollution sources. Systemic failures in implementation and coordination have also derailed the efforts.

Most experts push for long-term measures and not just short-term reactive steps. Anumita Roychowdhury, Executive Director, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), has asked for implementation of an annual, strategic plan with clear, time-bound milestones for reducing emissions from all major sources, moving beyond the short-term Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP).

Experts also focus on vehicular pollution, which cannot be overlooked. "The growth in the absolute number of vehicles is quite high. The progress made by the introduction of electric and cleaner vehicles is being nullified by the growth in the number of vehicles. Heavy and low-duty commercial vehicles make up just two per cent of all vehicles in the city, but contribute to 20% of all emissions," says Dr Gufran Beig, Founder-Director of SAFAR (System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research).

New Delhi knows the problem areas, but what is needed is strong on-ground execution. Efficient execution is often hampered by poor fund utilisation, lack of year-round enforcement and the tendency to go in for short-term, high-visibility fixes.