Smog is a transboundary issue that severely impacts the quality of life in many parts of Northern India and Pakistan. Recent statistics of the Global PM 2.5 database curated by the World Health Organization reveal that South Asia is home to 16 of the 20 most polluted cities in the world. Following the hazardous trend of the past few years, air pollution in Delhi NCR skyrocketed to dangerous levels in November 2020 again. At the same time, Lahore-often referred to as Delhi’s sister city was also shrouded under a thick blanket of smog as #LahoreSmog and #DelhiSmog trended on twitter. Despite facing complications arising out of smog year after year, the two countries have not developed any concrete mechanisms to address this urgent situation jointly.

This Policy Roundtable will address the following questions:

• What are the major causes of declining air quality and smog in the region?
• What measures have been taken in Delhi and Lahore by state and central administrations to address the issue?
• As smog is a transboundary issue, what policy options need to be explored by the two countries to coordinate efforts to address it?
• Which existing bilateral and multilateral fora can be explored by state and central governments of the two countries to initiate collaborative measures to address the issue of smog in the Indo–Pak region?

Speakers

Mohan Guruswamy

Rafay Alam

Chandra Bhushan

Anam Zeb

Karthik Ganesan