Programme to improve air quality management practices launched, 10 cities to benefit

NEW DELHI: Accelerator for Clean Air Actions (ACAAS), an initiative to extend technical support to cities looking to improve their air quality management practices, was launched by WRI India on Tuesday.


The programme will be operational in ten cities - Surat, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Indore, Mumbai, Pune, Jalandhar, Agra, Gorakhpur, and Chennai. ACAAS will help the participating cities build local capacity, data-based understanding, and clean air action planning, along with offering them a platform to engage with critical stakeholders to drive informed policy making, project preparation and on-ground implementation.


Air pollution is one of the leading environmental health risks worldwide. Many Indian cities face air pollution related issues regularly spurring national-level action. The Government of India launched the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) in 2019 to reduce particulate matter through city-specific air quality management plans.

ACAAS aims to address air quality challenges through a research-driven, solution-centric approach.

Speaking at the launch, Jamshyd Godrej, chairman, WRI India & chairman and managing director, Godrej & Boyce said “Air pollution becomes an important subject only when we see the AQI in our major cites skyrocketing. The awareness of that fades later. We need full transparency on what is happening with real-time monitoring along with enabling public access to key data. People are hungry for this real-time data”

The initiative is supported by Open Philanthropy, Bloomberg Philanthropies and Clean Air Fund.