The India Clean Air Summit (ICAS) 2020 was organised on 25 & 26 August.The summit is CSTEP's flagship event on air pollution, and is organised every year by the Centre for Air Pollution Studies (CAPS) at CSTEP. This year, it was organised online, in view of the COVID-19 scenario. Over 200 participants, including experts, scientists, researchers, and policymakers, from different parts of the world came together in live sessions, making the summit a roaring success.
The theme for ICAS2020, 'Finding the Missing Evidence' focussed on data that can inform policy decisions. Amid vibrant discussions, the participants called for a common data-sharing platform, and more importantly, a ‘democratic’ approach to studying and resolving air pollution. While there is a lot of awareness, and therefore, attempts to check air pollution in cities such as Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Delhi, efforts in the rest of the country have been dismal, they observed.
ICAS2020 assumes significance in the wake of the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) launched by the Government of India in 2018, which has underlined the absence of scientifically-rigorous monitoring and measurement studies on air pollution in India.
Summit Videos: You may view the proceedings at the links below:
Day 1: Data -The Missing Link between Air Pollution and Targeted Policy Action