Michael Greenstone, director of the Energy Policy Institute at Chicago and a leader in environmental economics, commented on India’s latest announcement to make air quality data available to the public:
“This is an important step forward, as transparency and/or data collection is a necessary step in addressing air pollution. However, it is not sufficient. The next step is to identify effective environmental regulations. And given the important emphasis that India places on growth, the obvious approach is to embrace market-based environmental regulations like the cap-and-trade program for particulates that India has been developing for the last several years.”
Greenstone continued, “Another potential benefit is that this index will increase awareness about air pollution and its harm to public health. In a recent paper, I found that environmental regulations are most likely to succeed in India when there is strong public support for them.”