Editor's note: Azhar Azam works in a private organization as a market & business analyst and writes about geopolitical issues and regional conflicts. The article reflects the author's opinion, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

With half of the global population having no access to clean fuels and technologies, engines in cars and production machines in factories continue to pump up dirty emissions – the very air we breathe is growing dangerously polluted. Nine out of 10 people in the hotter and densely populated world therefore inhale contaminated oxygen that roughly kills seven million people every year.

As an eye-widening one-third of the mortality by stroke, lung cancer and heart disease stem from air pollution – an equivalent effect to that of tobacco and much higher than impacts of eating too much salt – the phenomenon is emerging as the most pressing environmental health risk .

In its latest 2019 World Air Quality Report, the Swiss environmental technology company IQ Air AirVisual marshaled global PM 2.5 data to highlight the state of particulate pollution and estimated that 92 percent of the world population was exposed to toxic air in 2019, highlighting welfare losses of about five trillion U.S. dollars in financial terms due to premature deaths caused by air pollution.

The research further determined that all the 30 most polluted cities were located in Greater Asia (Page 4), with 27 in South Asia and 21 in India only. Indian metropolises, on average, outstripped WHO target for annual PM 2.5 exposure by 500 percent. Ghaziabad, a Delhi suburb, topped the list of cities with worst air quality in the world. Pakistan, at five, joined India to dominate the most polluted cities in 2019 globally.

In the face of dire and grim regional ecological statistics, the improvement in the air quality of several Chinese cities was an inspirational sign for other countries. Beijing, by halving its annual PM 2.5 levels and dropping itself out of the global 200 list, set the momentum for other Chinese cities that have also slashed their particulate matter standard by 21 percent in last two years.

Though India too lowered its national air effluence but it was largely because of its economic slowdown after its growth fell sharply to 4.8 percent in 2019. In comparison, China's success of bettering the air quality was commemorated with a generally stable GDP and industrial growth of 6.1 and 5.7 percent respectively amid rising trade tensions with the U.S. and certain economic headwinds.

Admiring China's commitment and response to tackling air pollution, Yann Boquillod director of IQAir's quality monitoring said: "In Beijing, it's a priority – in China, when they say something, they do it – they put the resources in" and urged the people in India to put pressure on their government.

Beijing isn't the only Chinese city that shrank its air pollution in recent times – Chengdu, Guangzhou and Shanghai are some of the others that have impressively abridged the PM 2.5 concentrations by about 50 percent between 2015 and 2019. So, the trend to strive for healthier environment is developing across the country.

The Chinese mainland has been so unswerving in the ambition to rally its air quality that during the trade war with the U.S., it didn't put a stop to its war against environment toxic waste and uninterruptedly kept the focus on shifting smog-producing industries away from its metropolitan cities.

China's achievements against air pollution is ratified by another independent research organization, Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), which eulogized country's pollution-handling measures in its Beijing and Shanghai priority regions and its "dramatic progress" on reducing national average PM 2.5 and SO2 levels.

Winter actions plans played a key role in Chinese triumph against air pollution. Through its 2017-18 major campaign, China not only reduced small-scale coal burning in factories and households and replaced them with natural gas and electricity but it also curtailed heavily the production of iron and steel, coke, cement, and non-ferrous metals that enabled it to bring down PM 2.5 levels by 25 percent in just one year.

In 2020 too, China remains committed to box the environmental pollution. While most cities reported improvement in air quality – this year, the density of PM 2.5, causing smog, is expected to be dropped by 15 percent in 337 prefecture-level cities as compared to 2015 that will lift the ratio of days with good quality air to 80 percent.

Ahead of Beijing Winter Olympics 2022, China is well on track to stage the event and deliver "spectacular" games with a "green, inclusive, open and corrupt-free approach." The ongoing coronavirus epidemic is not holding it back to host the sports gala in a couple of years. Earlier this month, Beijing's Mayor Office reaffirmed that the Chinese capital would ensure the completion of venues and support infrastructure on schedule.

Where the newest data showed China's significant progress in combating air pollution, it would additionally strengthen China's march toward forming a moderately prosperous society in all respects by 2020. Beijing's efforts to build a health-conscious and eco-friendly culture in the country would also embolden other regional countries to frame and implement pro-environment policies.

Remembering that China, along with Japan and the United States, has world's largest governmental monitoring networks that publish real-time air quality data continuously and puts environment sustainability right at the center of its agenda – the international world needs to follow a humanistic and social approach and should cooperate with each other to mutually contend with the challenge of air pollution.

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