The Fight Against Air Pollution in India

Hello all! I hope your summer is going well. Today I will be talking about India. Specifically, how the country is using BE initiatives to reduce the amount of air pollution. For reference, India has some of the worst cases of pollution in the world, so I hope your as interested to see their course of action as I was!.

This extensive and thorough effort began in 2024, using the techniques of behavioral economics to promote cleaner technologies and practices. This represented Air Quality (AQ) management at its best, and even better, it’s the first in the world. The comprehensive air quality initiative harnesses multiple approaches: far-reaching regulatory actions across many sector, the creation and investment in new organizations related to fighting pollution, the mobilization of participants and stakeholders, widespread public engagement and communication, and the application of the tools of behaviorally informed public policy.

Within its first year, the initiative led to a significant impact, producing a 20% drop in air pollution levels in key urban areas such as Delhi and Mumbai. This reduction resulted from things as simple as subsidies for electric vehicles (EVs) and strong incentives for using public transport via a series of public awareness campaigns that communicated the health risks tied to air pollution.

The AQ initiative not only included monetary rewards but also had an extensive public transportation campaign. The aim of this campaign was to get people to leave their private vehicles behind and take the bus, the train, or some other form of mass transit. The campaign did a good job of pointing out the environmental and health benefits of using public transit. And even though those are great reasons to take the bus, to the train, or to some other form of mass transit, the campaign also pointed out something else: that public transit can be a much more affordable way to get around.

The initiative’s success can be directly attributed to public awareness campaigns. These campaigns taught the public about the serious cons that air pollution posed to personal health and the environment. They made the public see air quality as an issue that is relevant and urgen, resulting in a decrease in the usage cars.

The effective use of behavioral economics makes the initiative successful. It is a well-known fact that people are more motivated to act when they know there’s going to be a payoff, and especially when that payoff comes soon and is obvious; on the other hand, if the loss is very real and salient, people will also take steps to prevent it. Keeping this in mind, the behavioral economics of the initiative promotes immediate and obvious rewards for making a “green” choice and avoiding a “red/polluted” one.

One more reason the initiative was successful can be attributed to social norms. The public awareness campaigns made a big deal out of how adopting cleaner technologies and using public transportation are becoming the norm. The initiative framed these behaviors as the socially responsible choice and highlighted the actions of many already making environmentally friendly choices. By doing so, the initiative created a kind of collective responsibility and “us too” sort of attitude that encourages more people to follow the lead of the people highlighted in the campaign and the people around them.

The accomplishment of this initiative carries vital weight for the implications it has on both India’s environmental policy and the broader global effort to reduce air pollution. Because the initiative’s strategies offer clear and insightful examples of how to use behavioral economics to achieve large-scale changes in public behavior and environmental results, they are not only relevant to India; they provide important evidence and guidance for anyone, anywhere, trying to improve air quality and protect the climate.

These behavioral strategies could be expanded and adapted to other environmental problems in India, like conserving water and managing waste. Immediate rewards, social norms, and loss aversion are the types of principles that apply broadly and could be used in many different ways to tackle a variety of environmental challenges.

Additionally, the initiative’s experiences in India could serve as a blueprint for other nations confronting comparable air quality problems. Given that they were able to begin making a turnaround, other countries can employ similar strategies of loss aversion and social norms as a way to counteract the status quo of their current environmental/pollution-related efforts.

The initiatives undertaken in India may have a global influence in the future. They could steer international efforts aimed at reducing air pollution and combating climate change. And we can take something away from this too. The more I talk and research about these topics, the more I realize how individual it needs to be in order to succeed. We always say that we we do won’t impact the world. Well there are over 7 billion “you’s” and if one person makes that difference we are one step closer to where we need to be.

1. Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, India. (2024). “India’s Clean Air Initiative: Behavioral Economics for a Healthier Future.” Retrieved from moefcc.gov.in
2. The Times of India. (2024). “How India is Cutting Air Pollution by 20% in Major Cities.” Times of India, Environment Section.
3. Bloomberg News. (2024). “India’s War on Air Pollution: A Case Study in Behavioral Economics.” Bloomberg Green.
4. Reuters. (2024). “India’s Clean Air Initiative: Using Behavioral Science to Drive Change.” Reuters Environment Section.