By Hadi Khan
Beijing has significantly improved its air quality through coordinated policies, strict enforcement, and bold reforms, offering a stark contrast to Delhi’s ongoing struggle with smog. While Delhi faces challenges like fragmented governance and funding issues, Beijing’s success highlights the critical need for regional coordination, binding targets, and structural reforms to achieve cleaner skies.
Delhi is engulfed in a thick, choking smog fuelled by crop-residue burning in neighbouring states, vehicle emissions, industrial pollution, and road dust.
For years, hazardous air quality has become almost routine, putting residents’ health at risk.
Meanwhile, Beijing — once notorious as the “smog capital of the world” — has transformed its air in just over a decade. Coordinated policies, strict enforcement, and bold reforms have turned the grey city skies blue, offering a stark contrast to Delhi’s perennial haze.
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Between 2013 and 2021, air pollution in Beijing fell by over 42%, according to the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC).