Climate, Health and AIr pollution Research in India (CHAIR-India): Addressing Gaps in Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

Providing actionable evidence highlighting synergies and conflicts between global sustainable development goals of climate action, reducing air pollution and promoting better health, while interacting with key stakeholders is an important step forward to achieving Agenda 2030. India, with 1.3 billion inhabitants, extreme exposures to air pollution and high temperatures and large vulnerable populations requires urgent action. Indian policy has made slow progress often due to lack of locally generated evidence to support action primarily due to the absence of high quality assessment of exposure to air pollution and temperature, and their joint adverse impacts on human health. In an international multidisciplinary consortium of leading experts, we will leverage cutting-edge methodologies, already developed for Delhi, using multiple sources for 1x1 km predictions of fine particulate matter pollution and temperature across India. Linking this data to health datasets we will study associations of long-term air pollution and temperature with mortality and cardiometabolic and respiratory disease in rural and urban India. To foster public awareness, collaboration and policy change, we will provide an interactive web-tool, open access to environmental data, and an ambitious stakeholder communications and engagement strategy. Our success in India will significantly contribute to sustainable development benefiting both the large Indian population and the global community.