India. The air pollution, the heatwaves and the floods.
More human beings are living in India than in any other country and it is probably among the top 5 of the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitters. Like most countries it suffers from multiple climate change related issues, air pollution, heatwaves and floods are three of the most destructive.
India suffers from regular widespread air pollution issues. Apart from carbon emissions from road transportation and manufacturing industries, for example, air pollution in India is caused by the prolific use of coal in electricity generation together with the widespread burning of wood and vegetation for domestic and agricultural purposes. According to NBCnews.com in an article in March 2025, “six of the world’s 10 most polluted cities are in India”. It quoted the 2024 World Air Quality Report as saying, “New Delhi was the most polluted capital city globally, followed by N’Djamena, the capital of Chad, a country in central Africa with the world’s worst air pollution.” Apart from its health effects, air pollution adds to greenhouse gas formation which contributes to global warming and climate change.
Describing the gravity of air pollution in India, CNN.com reports in a November 2025 article, that “pollution been an issue for so long in the Indian capital that the city’s famous Red Fort is turning black, an outward sign of a growing health and political crisis that’s now bringing angry residents onto the streets.” The authorities are sensitive to the pollution health implications for citizens and the potential political fallouts, as CNN.com claims “New Delhi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government insists it’s taking action, and last month launched an expensive – and unsuccessful – cloud seeding experiment to wash away the toxic air.” Cloud seeding is a process whereby several small planes are used to spray substances into the air polluted clouds to induce rainfall and thus causing the elimination of the pollution. Address the practical travesty of the air pollution, CNN.com says “reports attribute millions of deaths in the past three years to pollution in India. The 2025 State of Global Air report estimated that in 2023, India accounted for nearly 30% of air pollution-related deaths worldwide.”
Regular heatwaves are a major issue in India. Reporting on April 11, 2025, News.mongabay.com states that “several cities across India saw temperatures top 40 Celsius, or 104 Fahrenheit, this past week, with some areas exceeding 46 Celsius (114.8 Fahrenheit),” and that the capital city “Delhi experienced a heat wave for three consecutive days, recording its warmest April night in three years, with temperatures 5-6 Celsius (9-10.8 Fahrenheit) above normal for the period.”
Heatwaves struck India in 2024 as well. Writing on May 29, 2025 Cbc.ca states that “for weeks now, the heat in India has been unrelenting,” and that “a new record was set in Delhi on Wednesday, with the temperature reaching a stifling 52.9C” (127.22F), while being in the 40’s for the entire week. It quoted a city dweller as saying “when we go outside it seems like someone is slapping our faces, it has become difficult to live in Delhi.” Cbc.com pointed out that it was the third consecutive year that India was experiencing extreme heatwaves.
Intense rainfall resulted in devastating flash flood in India in August, 2025. In its August 5 publication The Guardian.com describes one of India’s recent worse experiences with flash floods, “dozens of people were missing after a fast-moving surge of water and mud smashed into a town in India’s Himalayan region on Tuesday, tearing down a mountain valley and demolishing buildings, killing at least five people”. It argues that based on video footage “a terrifying river of muddy water engulf the town of Dharali in Uttarakhand state on Tuesday afternoon, sweeping away entire homes and apartment blocks.”
2024 also saw extreme floods in India. Publishing on Sept 2, 2024 ALJazeera reports that “intense monsoon rains and floods in India’s southern states have killed at least 25 people, with thousands rescued and taken to relief camps,” it further claims that “at least 16 people have been killed in Telangana state and nine in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh in the past two days.” As a reflection of the extent of the crisis “the Indian Air Force flies more than 200 rescue officers and 30 tonnes of emergency aid to Talangana and Andhra Pradesh states,” according to ALJazeera.
India’s electricity generation still largely depends on the burning of fossil fuels, As Ember-energy.org reports, “with fossil fuels accounting for 78% of [electricity] generation in 2024, the power sector is India’s largest emissions contributor” and the fossil fuel coal, though receding, is responsible for a gigantic portion of the 78%, “coal generation met 64% of India’s electricity demand growth, a sharp drop from 91% in 2023”. When burned in places like electricity power plants, coal produces more greenhouse gas than other fossil fuels, like natural gas, and for coal to be still responsible for 64% of India’s electricity production largely explains India’s high levels of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. According to Ember-energy, low carbon energies produced 22% of India’s electricity in 2024, with wind and solar accounting for 10% of that amount.
Electric car sales in India is slow but growing. Cleantechnica, citing the Indian Economic Times says “electric car sales rose 20% in 2024, jumping from 82,688 sold in 2023 to approximately 100,000 in 2024.” It argues also that “petrol, diesel and hybrid vehicles, [in other words, combustion engine, fossil fuel vehicles], still dominate the market. However, electric cars have achieved a penetration rate of 2.4% of the 4.07 million vehicles sold in India in 2024.” Electric cars are being outsold by two-wheel and three-wheel electric vehicles. In India, particularly in urban centers, two-wheel vehicles, like Scooters and three-wheelers like Rickshaws, are major forms of transportation. Auto-Rickshaws are called Tuk Tuks. Traffic congestion and cost are driving forces behind their adoption. There have been successful levels electrification of these forms of transportation, which will significantly reduce the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
According to Cleantechnica, data gathered from most of the country “escooter sales have gone from over 900,000 in 2023 to over 1.2 million in 2024. Electric two-wheelers accounted for almost 60% of the two million electric vehicles sold.” It says the data collected also show that “3-wheel vehicles, of which almost 700,000 were sold, included almost half a million tuk tuks (3-wheel electric richshaws).” Clearly, what the figures are showing, is that so far, EV sales in India is dominated by two and three wheel vehicles and not by cars, but more significant is the fact that overall fossil fuel use is diminishing and this could be seen, at least in part, as a success of the Government’s National Electric Mobility Mission Plan (NEMMP). This plan was brought about in 2020 to initiate and to intensify EV manufacturing and adoption as a way to reduce the use fossil fuels while promoting cleaner alternative energies.
Impediments to EV sales in India are mainly caused by high purchase prices, inadequate vehicle-charging stations and concerns about battery longevity. To promote sales, the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid) and Electric Vehicles program (FAME), has become part of the NEMMP, to provide government subsidies and incentives to buyers of all EV categories, including public transportation and electric buses. In terms of electric buses Cleantechnica states that in New Delhi alone “they have 8,000 in service and expect another 3,000 by the end of the year,” meaning the end of 2025.
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