A new international assessment has spotlighted a major gap in climate planning, raising questions about how health impacts are being addressed amid rising environmental and air pollution risks.
India has ranked among the lowest-performing countries in a new global assessment examining how national climate plans address public health, despite facing substantial health risks from climate change and air pollution.
The findings come from the Healthy NDC Scorecard published by the Global Climate and Health Alliance, which evaluated 132 countries on how effectively health considerations are integrated into their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement. These climate plans outline each country’s commitments on emissions reductions and adaptation measures.
India received just two points out of a possible 32, placing it joint-bottom among the countries assessed alongside Japan and New Zealand. The report argues that several major economies continue to treat climate and health as separate policy issues, leaving significant gaps in efforts to protect populations from climate-related harms.
The assessment arrives at a time when health is becoming an increasingly important topic within international climate discussions. It also carries particular significance for India, which ranked ninth in the Climate Risk Index 2026 covering the period from 1995 to 2024, underlining the country’s exposure to extreme weather and climate-related impacts.
According to the report, India’s latest climate plan fails to adequately address health outcomes linked to climate change and overlooks the public health benefits that could emerge from stronger emissions reduction policies.
Researchers highlighted air pollution as one of the most important omissions. The report notes that India records an estimated 186.2 deaths per 100,000 people linked to air pollution, yet references to air-quality considerations remain absent from the country’s latest climate commitments.
The scorecard also found that India is among a group of countries whose emissions-reduction commitments are not aligned with pathways required under the Paris Agreement, increasing concerns about future health risks associated with rising temperatures.
Air Pollution And Climate Policy Remain Largely Separate
The assessment evaluated countries across eight categories: health impacts, air pollution, health-sector action, health co-benefits, just transition measures, integrated governance, economics and finance, and monitoring and evaluation.
India received zero points in six of those categories and earned only one point each for health-sector action and integrated governance. The report argues that this reflects limited integration between climate and public health planning.
Experts cited in the report said the gap is particularly significant because climate policy and air-quality improvements often deliver overlapping benefits.
Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director of research and advocacy at the Centre for Science and Environment, said it was difficult to explain why air pollution and health benefits were omitted despite the major health burden linked to poor air quality. She noted that climate change, energy policy and air pollution cannot be addressed effectively in isolation.
The report also points to black carbon and other short-lived climate pollutants, which contribute both to rising temperatures and harmful health outcomes. Only five countries assessed – Cambodia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica and Paraguay have incorporated black-carbon reduction targets into their climate plans.
Colombia achieved the highest overall score with 29 out of 32 points, followed by Nigeria with 25 and Cambodia with 24. Paraguay and Timor-Leste completed the top five rankings. Notably, 19 of the 20 highest-scoring countries were low- and middle-income economies.
Among major emitters, performance was mixed. South Korea scored four points, Russia six, Brazil seven, while Australia, China and the United Kingdom each received nine. The European Union scored 12, South Africa 13, Türkiye 14, Canada 16 and the United Arab Emirates 19.
The report concludes that stronger integration of health considerations into climate planning could generate multiple benefits simultaneously. Researchers argue that reducing pollutants such as black carbon, methane, hydrofluorocarbons and tropospheric ozone would help slow global warming, improve public health and reduce long-term economic costs.