Valerie Hickey, Global Director for Environment, World Bank, told The Secretariat in an interview, “One highly replicable approach is managing pollution at the regional or airshed level, rather than city by city. This allows governments to address the full range of pollution sources — transport, industry and agriculture — more efficiently and at lower cost.”

Hickey said comprehensive clean air programmes are critical to reducing the disease burden, improving quality of life, and sustaining long-term development.   

As another Earth Day goes by, air pollution continues to be one of the biggest health threats in India. High levels of PM 2.5 exposure are linked to increased incidence of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, leading to substantial economic losses through reduced labour productivity, increased healthcare costs, and diminished human capital outcomes.  

What Is Airshed Management 

According to the World Bank, an airshed is a common geographical area where pollutants mix and create similar air quality for everyone.

The World Bank’s analysis suggests that the South Asian region has six airsheds, four of them falling in India. The Indo-Gangetic Plain includes Punjab, Haryana, parts of Rajasthan, Chandigarh, Delhi, and Uttar Pradesh. The central and eastern Indo-Gangetic Plain include Bihar, West Bengal, Jharkhand, and Bangladesh. Middle India includes Odisha and Chhattisgarh, eastern Gujarat and western Maharashtra.

An Airshed Management Programme is a regional, collaborative approach to improving air quality by managing pollution within a specific geographical area where pollutants get trapped, regardless of city or state boundaries.

Former IMF Chief Economist Gita Gopinath, speaking at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos this year, said that emerging pollution was one of the biggest threats to India’s economic growth.

“The real costs of pollution are not merely environmental... They are deeply intertwined with economic growth, productivity, and the health of citizens,” she said.

The China Example

According to the World Bank, airshed management programmes in China and Mexico were able to successfully bring down air pollution by robust data monitoring and regulatory interventions.

Infrastructure investments in targeted sectors such as clean cooking, industry, transport and dust emissions, and training of government staff to deliver durable air quality improvements also played an important role.

China’s main pollutant was PM2.5, emitted from heavy industries, coal-based heating, power plants, vehicles, and crop burning. Recognising the urgency, China launched aggressive measures from 2013 onward, resulting in air quality improvements across nearly 80% of the country. 

Climate Change As Economic Issue

Climate change is rapidly becoming an economic issue, influencing growth, jobs, and productivity across sectors. Its impacts—from extreme weather to resource stress—are already disrupting development pathways.

Framing climate change as a development challenge, Hickey said, “At its core, climate change is about how economies grow and how people earn a living.”

“One of the biggest global barriers is that nature-related risks are still not fully built into everyday economic decisions — whether it’s where cities expand, how infrastructure is designed, or how energy systems evolve. At the same time, many countries face real financial constraints, even though delaying climate action ultimately costs far more in terms of lost growth, jobs, and productivity.”

Turning Sustainability Into Opportunity

Highlighting how climate action can be aligned with growth and jobs, Hickey said, “The World Bank’s role is to help countries turn actions for sustainability into an economic opportunity. In India, this means supporting policies and investments that strengthen resilience while creating jobs, whether through disaster‑resilient infrastructure, more productive agriculture, or cleaner energy systems.”

“By aligning climate goals with development priorities, countries can protect growth today and unlock new sources of competitiveness for the future. We play a crucial role by using public finance to unlock much larger private investment, lowering risks and helping countries move projects from plans to implementation,” she said.

Clean Air Investments

Clean air investments also catalyse job creation — from green manufacturing to pollution monitoring and urban services — reinforcing that jobs are the surest path out of poverty and are the foundation of sustained economic growth. 

“In India, the World Bank is supporting this transition by working with states on large‑scale clean air programmes that link environmental action with economic outcomes.

She said Uttar Pradesh and Haryana were the first states to implement a comprehensive programme to tackle this complex challenge.

“This is based on new scientific evidence and using an airshed approach – managing air quality across an entire region, rather than city-by-city, to tackle air pollution,” Hickey told The Secretariat.

These programmes help modernise transport, support cleaner industrial technologies, and promote better agricultural practices while also reducing health costs, improving worker productivity, and creating new employment opportunities.

“The World Bank’s approach is to strengthen climate‑resilient infrastructure and cities, while restoring ecosystems that act as natural buffers — such as watersheds that secure water supplies, forests and mangroves and support rural livelihoods. Alongside this, we support cleaner energy, low‑carbon transport, and sustainable urban services that create jobs and improve competitiveness,” she said.

Pollution In India

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the concentration of PM2.5 should not exceed 5 micrograms per cubic metre.

An IQAir report released in March says five Indian cities are among the top 10 most polluted cities in the world, including Uttar Pradesh’s Loni, which has alarmingly high levels of PM 2.5, Meghalaya’s Byrnihat, followed by Delhi, Ghaziabad, and Ula (Birnagar) in West Bengal. Loni's PM2.5 level is almost 22 times the prescribed limit.

According to the public policy think tank Council on Energy, Environment and Water, the biggest source of PM2.5 in India is the transport sector - its contribution ranges from 17.9% to 39.2%. Road dust is the second largest source, contributing up to 37.8%.