NEW DELHI: Strengthening air quality standards and ensuring strong regulation of industrial and energy emissions is crucial to protecting the human right to a healthy environment, a UN expert said.
Recently, Astrid Puentes Riano, UN Special Rapporteur on the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, submitted a new report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, calling on governments and companies to address the public health and human rights crisis caused by air pollution.
In a statement to PTI, Riano said countries are increasingly recognizing the human rights impacts of air pollution, and India has taken steps through programs such as the National Air Quality Index and the National Clean Air Programme.
“Strengthening air quality standards, aligning them with the best available science, and ensuring strong regulation of industrial and energy emissions will be critical to protecting the human right to a healthy environment and protecting the health and other rights of millions of people exposed to polluted air,” she told PTI.
Referring to countries in Asia, including India, the “Priority to breathe clean air, protect public health and ensure a healthy environment” report notes that the increasing use of fossil fuels by cities continues to lead to increased exposure in urban areas, despite progress in renewable energy deployment.
“Fireworks, especially in already heavily polluted areas, can also cause dangerous spikes in air pollution, exacerbating health risks, as seen in Delhi, India and Mexico City,” the report submitted to the UN Human Rights Council on March 6 said.
Riano stressed that continued inaction on air pollution allows preventable harm to continue, disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable groups and deepening existing inequalities.
“It particularly affects children, pregnant women, people with disabilities, those living in poverty and the elderly. When governments and companies fail to act on known sources of pollution, they fail in their duty to protect people’s health, dignity and basic rights,” she added.
The report also identifies multiple measures for national governments, cities, subnational authorities, companies and international organizations.
It calls for better integration of air quality, human rights and climate policies, along with efforts to map pollution hotspots and focus interventions on protecting vulnerable communities.
When contacted, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change responded to the report.
Speaking about the references to India in the report, Bhavreen Kandari, co-founder of the Warrior Moms movement, urged clean air standards to be strengthened, legally enforced and aligned with the latest WHO recommendations.
“Almost the entire population of the world is breathing air that does not meet WHO health guidelines. When governments fail to translate the guidelines into binding laws, they are effectively allowing preventable diseases and deaths to continue,” Kandari, who represented civil society at events held on the sidelines of the 61st session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, told PTI.
Warrior Mothers along with Climate Our Children – both a global parents’ movement – were among the civil society groups that contributed inputs to the Special Rapporteur’s report, presenting the perspectives of parents and communities directly affected by air pollution.
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