India saw over 1.7 mn deaths from PM2.5 pollution in 2022: Lancet report

Human-caused PM2.5 pollution was responsible for more than 1.7 million deaths in India in 2022 -- up by 38 per cent since 2010 -- with use of fossil fuels contributing to 44 per cent of the deaths, according to a global report published by The Lancet journal.

Use of petrol for road transport contributed to 269,000 deaths, the '2025 Report of The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change' said.

Estimates also suggest that premature mortality in 2022 due to outdoor air pollution in India translated into a financial loss of USD 339.4 billion -- about 9.5 per cent of the country's GDP.

An international team of 128 experts from 71 academic institutions and UN agencies, led by University College London, was involved in producing the ninth edition of the report.

Published ahead of the 30th UN Conference of the Parties (COP30), the report provides the most comprehensive assessment to date of the connections between climate change and health, the authors said.

The findings assume significance against a backdrop of Delhi seeing consistently high levels of air pollution, with air quality shifting between "poor" and "very poor" over the past few days.

Cloud-seeding trials were conducted in parts of the national capital, such as Burari, Karol Bagh, and Mayur Vihar, over the past week in an attempt to address pollution. However, environmentalists describe it as a "short-term measure" that fails to tackle the root causes of the city's degrading air quality.

"There were over 1,718,000 deaths attributable to anthropogenic air pollution (PM2.5) in 2022 in India, an increase of 38 per cent since 2010. Fossil fuels (coal and liquid gas) contributed to 752,000 (44 per cent) of these deaths in 2022," the authors wrote in a country-related data sheet, accompanying the Lancet report.

They found fossil fuels continued to account for nearly all of road transport energy in India (96 per cent), and electricity accounted for only 0.3 per cent.

As of 2022, coal still made up nearly half of the total energy supply (46 per cent) and three-fourths of total electricity in India, while renewables made up two per cent and 10 per cent, respectively, the report said.

The authors added that a continued over-reliance on fossil fuels and failure to adapt to climate change is costing people's lives, health, and livelihoods. An analysis of national policies also reveals that India's preparedness for a low-carbon transition reduced by two per cent from 2023.

An average of 10,200 deaths every year during 2020-2024 in India could be traced to PM2.5 pollution from forest fires -- an increase of 28 per cent from rates during 2003-2012, according to the findings.

Further, 18 per cent of household energy came from electricity in 2022, while 58 per cent came from "highly polluting" solid biofuels.

Household air pollution due to the use of polluting fuels was associated with an estimated 113 deaths per one lakh population, with death rates seen to be higher in rural, compared to urban areas.