Statsguru: Six charts show human cost of pollution and climate change

Data also indicates that even if pollution doesn't kill, it does cost the country in terms of loss of healthy life years

Last week, a report released by the Health Effects Institute (HEI) in Washington, US, said that 93 per cent of Indians live in areas where air pollution levels exceed the World Health Organisation (WHO) prescribed standards. It also noted that air pollution had shortened the life expectancy in the country by 1.5 years. Emission levels in India have been declining, but data indicates that they are still growing faster than the rest of the world (chart 1).

The HEI report highlighted that rising emission levels claimed over 979,700 lives in India in 2019. Although deaths due to air pollution have