The Foreign Service Journal, September 2015

40 SEPTEMBER 2015 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL pollution data while all others did not. As for the second assumption: in fact, whether intended or not, our continued public silence about India’s very unhealthy air pollution levels sent a message that this was not an impor- tant problem worthy of Mission India’s effort. In the first few months of my time here, I had met many Indians who felt strongly that air pollution was an increasingly pressing issue that needed more attention. They acknowledged that they were fighting a steep uphill battle to get others to care about it. As I discussed these issues with them, I became increasingly convinced that, in addition to our obligations to other Americans, making our data public would send a subtle but important signal of support to those within Indian society trying to address the problem. I hoped that making the data public could help move the issue forward in our bilateral relationship and in India’s domestic political discourse, as well. A small, core group of likeminded colleagues in the embassy and in Washington agreed, and we began to coalesce and brainstorm. My initial efforts to make progress on this issue were not encouraging. I was told that publishing our data widely was not appropriate and could cause damage to our bilateral relationship. My view was that air pollution was an issue that would only get more important over time. Furthermore, upholding our values of transparency and honesty would serve the U.S.-India relationship best in the long run. Create an Alternative Narrative, Nail Down the Facts and Build Alliances Between February and May 2014, several things happened that ultimately helped change the nature of the debate. First, a conference was convened in New Delhi of officials and academics from India and California involved with the Deciding when, how or whether to offer constructive dissent on an issue is a personal decision dependent on the specifics of a given situation. India-California Air Pollution Mitigation Program, an initiative that offered practical, actionable recommendations on ways to improve air quality in an affordable and technically feasible manner. California’s experience offered a compelling, posi- tive story of how an American state had overcome significant environmental challenges and had simultaneously grown its economy substantially. It was a story I felt would resonate in India, and it was something I began to stress in discussions on the issue. Second, a few of us at the embassy met with the Lawrence Berkeley National Labs scientist Dr. Josh Apte, who had been doing research on New Delhi’s air pollution for several years. Apte’s slide presentation was a concise, powerful, easily digestible summation of the factors contributing to New Del- hi’s bad air, the health impact it was having on the population, the importance of raising public awareness of the problem and the steps that could be implemented to begin making a differ- ence. Those of us in that first meeting were so impressed that we proposed that he give his presentation to the ambassador and country team. A few weeks later, Dr. Apte did just that, and its impact was critical. In a short span of time, Ambassador Nancy J. Powell became a supporter of publishing our data, often referring to Apte’s briefing as a turning point in her own thinking on the importance of acting on air pollution and how it could fit into our diplomatic engagement with India. Third, in May WHO released its list of cities suffering high air pollution levels, and New Delhi was identified as the worst in its 1,600-city worldwide database. Timing Is Key In June 2014, with the Indian elections behind us, the WHO designation of New Delhi as the most polluted city in the world, and a positive narrative based on the California experi- ence to shape our efforts, all of our senior leadership agreed to make our AQM data available on our public website. While the initial reaction was subdued (June is a “low” pol- lution month in New Delhi), air pollution levels spiked in the city by the fall, and the Indian media began to report regularly on the embassy’s public numbers, which quickly became a trusted source of reliable information. During the following months, Indian news channels devoted substantial coverage to India’s bad air. One of the major daily papers started an air pollution box that included Embassy New Delhi data every day, and the level of discussion among Indians and expats alike continued to rise.