Air Pollution: India Can Learn From London, Mexico City, Tokyo, Beijing | The Reason Why

Bryan Johnson left Nikhil Kamath's podcast because of pollution, and more recently, Putin's cough made headlines for similar reasons. In 2017, Frank Hans Dannenberg Castellanos raised the issue with India's Ministry of External Affairs. If pollution in major cities continues to worsen, it may soon prompt expats, diplomats, and business leaders to avoid Delhi altogether.

Air pollution in India is a persistent issue, reflecting administrative shortcomings rather than mere weather effects. Cities like Beijing, London, Mexico City and Tokyo have improved their air quality by treating it as essential infrastructure and implementing sustained regulations. Let's understand what we can learn from these cities. 
 

Beijing: Governance Matters (2025 Average AQI = 81)

Between 2013 and 2017, Beijing successfully reduced pollution. This came from China's Clean Air Action Plan that cut coal use, shut or moved dirty industries, scrapped millions of old vehicles, and pushed households from coal to gas.

The real driver wasn't technology. It was governance. Studies showed Beijing's worst smog came from the wider Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei industrial belt. China responded by treating the whole region as one airshed and imposing strict controls. It even used real-time monitoring, satellite checks and big data to speed up the process.

However, China's system is opaque. So it's hard to tell how things like job loss or family stress impacted people during the transition.
 

London: Slow & Steady (2025 Average AQI = 45)

London's pollution story begins with the Great Smog of 1952, which killed at least 4,000 people in a few days. After a few years, the government passed the Clean Air Act of 1956 - the world's first serious air-pollution law.

The cleanup was slow, as coal bans, smokeless zones, gas adoption, unleaded fuel, and stricter emissions rules were introduced gradually. Cutting key pollutants by over 75% took nearly fifty years.

London's deeper lesson is about persistence. The process was slow yet systematic - very British, one might say. What mattered was political commitment throughout multiple electoral cycles, and that regulation kept evolving with science.
 

Mexico City: Learning Through Failures (2025 Average AQI = 55)

Mexico City teaches what works and what doesn't in the pollution crisis. Labelled the world's most polluted city by the UN in 1992, it struggled with population growth, rapid industrialisation, migration, and emissions trapped by its mountainous, high-altitude basin.

In 1989, it tried to cut pollution by banning cars one day a week based on licence plates. It failed because richer families bought another car, mostly older and dirtier ones.

In the mid-1990s, the city launched ProAire, a long-term, multi-sector and adaptive programme which included the introduction of natural gas, unleaded petrol, and stricter vehicle standards, and expansion of public transport.

The payoff came gradually. But the story isn't a clean victory. Bureaucracy still falters while car use is also rising.
 

Tokyo: Early Actions (2025 Average AQI = 36)

Tokyo moved early on air pollution. Local factory regulations preceded national laws. Since the 1970s, carbon monoxide and sulphur dioxide levels have dropped significantly due to cleaner fuels and technologies. By the 2000s, roadside carbon monoxide matched general ambient levels.

Nitrogen dioxide was trickier. It rose again during the late-1980s bubble as traffic surged. In the early 2000s, Tokyo acted against diesel vehicles, leading to a steady drop in particulate levels.

But Tokyo also shows where city-led action runs out of road. Fine particulates remain above WHO guidelines, largely due to industrial emissions nearby.

The takeaway is sobering. Early regulation works and buys time - but without regional coordination, it eventually hits a ceiling.
 

Cross City Lessons for India

A few takeaways from the experiences of Beijing, London, Mexico City, and Tokyo are:

Regional collaboration is essential. Without a powerful airshed body, city-level efforts will fall short.

Quick fixes are ineffective.

Long-term, evolving strategies are key, as seen in London and Mexico City.

Data-driven enforcement and scientific studies are vital.

Robust monitoring, like Beijing's, ensures effective penalties.

Expanding public transport is more impactful than temporary bans.

Technology and standards only work with strong institutions.
 

On India's Fight Against Pollution

In India, pollution control is more of a drama and less of a policy. The enforcement is uneven, uncertain, and sometimes even unscientific.

Fighting for clean air is unfortunate, while the government's response in Delhi (2025 Average AQI = 180) highlights that clean air is still not given in society.

Which leaves three blunt questions for India, in order:

1. Does it want to clean its air? Voters don't seem interested, nor are politicians.

2. Will it build the institutional architecture needed to do so? Currently, India's pollution control boards are toothless.

3. Only then - Will people finally get clean air?
 

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