With seven of the top 10 most polluted cities in India, air pollution has become a severe public health crisis putting millions at risk. Global awareness and urgency of the problem has grown, and national and local governments, NGOs, researchers, and philanthropic and bilateral funders are increasing their attention to it. Critical air pollution mitigation initiatives are already underway in India under the aegis of the National Clean Air Programme.
Several funding organisations and funds (domestic, bilateral and international) have committed to substantially increasing investments to improve air quality. Philanthropic investment in existing and new projects has increased with the goal of substantially moving the needle on clean air action. The field is growing rapidly and presents an opportunity for philanthropy to be at the forefront of building capacity in the sector.
Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation engaged with Sensing Local to publish Funding opportunities to support clean air action across India with the goal of accelerating action on clean air using a solutions-oriented approach. The publication takes its starting point from a study by India Climate Collaborative entitled Building a thriving ecosystem to tackle India’s air pollution problem, which maps and assesses India’s air quality ecosystem capturing detailed inputs from 87 air quality actors on challenges and priority work streams. The findings were analysed to create a comprehensive list of funding opportunities for the sector categorised into themes. The analysis was followed by interviews with air quality experts and institutions who convened at the Shakti-supported annual convening on air quality. The information and feedback garnered were assimilated into the final report.
Summary Findings
