New Delhi: Cities are major contributors to climate change. According to UN-Habitat, cities consume 78 percent of the world’s energy and produce more than 60 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. Yet, they account for less than 2 percent of the Earth’s surface.
Gopal Rai, Delhi’s environment minister, cited research by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) that claimed 60 percent of Delhi’s air pollution originates from outside the city.
According to the World Air Quality Report, which was released on Tuesday, Bhiwadi in Rajasthan, Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, and the national capital Delhi have the most polluted air. In the ranking of the 5 Indian cities with the poorest air quality, Jaunpur and Noida, both in Uttar Pradesh, are included.
According to the Swiss organization’s research, India has 35 entries in the list of the 50 worldwide cities with toxic air, and Delhi is the world’s most polluted capital city for the fourth year in a row.
According to IQ Air, none of the Indian cities whose quality of air was tested met WHO criteria of 5 micrograms per cubic meter.
Bhiwadi’s AQI level is 106.2 which is the highest polluted city in India, India facing air pollution difficulty for the last 4/5 years.
City name AQI level
Bhiwadi (Rajasthan) 106.2
Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh) 102
Delhi (Delhi NCR) 96.4
Jaunpur (Uttar Pradesh) 95.3
Noida (Uttar Pradesh) 91.4
Baghpat (Uttar Pradesh) 89.1
Hisar (Haryana) 89
Faridabad (Haryana) 88.9
Greater Noida (Uttar Pradesh) 87.5
(Smit Soni)